Question

During her stay in Europe, Elise tasted a variety of traditional Continental desserts; Polish Babka, German Baumkuchen and Italian Cassata.
Choose the option that best corrects the underlined word.

a) desserts …
b) desserts,
c) desserts:
d) NO CHANGE

Answer 1

Hint: Focus on what sentence in the question is showing- it is showing a list/series. A list is a database containing an ordered array of items. A series refers to similar things placed in order or happening one after another.

Complete answer:
In the given question, we need to select the options which implies the usage of the right punctuation mark for this question.
Before doing that, let us understand what the sentence is showing. It is showing a list, of continental desserts that Elise tasted in Europe.
Let us now analyze the options given to us in this question:
Option (a.), 'desserts …', refers to using an ellipsis (…) which is an omission of certain words.
Therefore, option (a.) is incorrect as there is no need of an ellipsis as nothing has been omitted

Option (b.), ‘desserts,', refers to using a comma which is a punctuation mark (,) used to indicate the separation of elements within the grammatical structure of a sentence.
Therefore, option (b.) is incorrect as there is no separation needed at that particular point in the sentence.

Option (c.), ‘desserts:', refers to using a colon which is a punctuation mark (:) used after a word introducing a series or an example or an explanation (or after the salutation of a business letter).
Therefore, option (c.) is correct as a colon is be used correctly to indicate the start of the series of ‘desserts’.

Option (d.), ‘NO CHANGE', refers to using the preexisting semicolon which is a punctuation mark (`;') used to connect independent clauses; indicates a closer relation than does a period.
Therefore, option (d.) is incorrect as there is no requirement for a semicolon at that point.

Note:
In this question, it would be helpful for students to recall the concepts of punctuation and punctuation marks. Punctuation refers to the use of certain marks to clarify meaning of written material by grouping words grammatically into sentences and clauses and phrases. Thus, punctuation marks are the marks used to clarify meaning by indicating the separation of words into sentences and clauses and phrases.