SAT Form, Structure, and Sense Question

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Question 1 · Hard · Reading and WritingDecember 2024 · Q20Form, Structure, and Sense · 0 solved

On most of the world's beaches, sand is a predictable cream or beige color. The sand at Talofofo Beach in Guam is an <u>________</u> sand gets its shade from deposits of gray-and tan-hued quartz and feldspar, deposits of crushed olivine crystal and other organic matter lend the sand at Talofofo Beach a colorful green tint. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

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Strategy

Decide what the blank must do: connect a complete statement to an explanation or elaboration. Use a colon to introduce that explanatory clause when it fully explains the preceding independent clause. Always test for comma splices by checking whether two independent clauses are joined only by a comma or by a comma plus a mere interrupter.

Hints (open one at a time)

Hint 1

What function should the punctuation after “exception” serve—end the thought, or introduce an explanation of it?

Hint 2

Ask whether the words after the blank form a complete clause that elaborates on the exception; if so, consider a colon.

Hint 3

Read the full sentence with your choice and check for comma splices—are any two complete clauses joined only by a comma?

Step-by-step Explanation

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The trap here

The SAT colon rule: the part that matters is BEFORE the colon — Students check what follows the colon. The SAT checks what precedes it — it must be a complete sentence.