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Sajjad1994
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Capitalized words and erratic punctuation, especially dashes, in place 12 Nov 2020, 06:50
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Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

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35% (medium)

Question Stats:

60% (01:12) correct 40% (01:24) wrong based on 135 sessions

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Capitalized words and erratic punctuation, especially dashes, in places that often surprise—if not momentarily halt—the reader, are hallmarks of Dickinson’s poetry.

(A) surprise—if not momentarily halt—the reader, are

(B) surprise—if not momentarily halting—the reader, are

(C) surprise—if not momentarily halt—the reader, being

(D) surprise if not momentarily halt the reader, are

(E) surprises if not momentarily halts the reader, are
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A
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Capitalized words and erratic punctuation, especially dashes, in place 13 Nov 2020, 08:28
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Sajjad1994
Capitalized words and erratic punctuation, especially dashes, in places that often surprise—if not momentarily halt—the reader, are hallmarks of Dickinson’s poetry.

(A) surprise—if not momentarily halt—the reader, are

(B) surprise—if not momentarily halting—the reader, are

(C) surprise—if not momentarily halt—the reader, being

(D) surprise if not momentarily halt the reader, are

(E) surprises if not momentarily halts the reader, are
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A IMO,
Plural "Capitalized words and erratic punctuation " . are is the correct usage and surprise. So E and C are out
Halting means action is in progress , which is improper. So B is out

between A and D A sounds better because of missing , after surprise.

A IMO
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Capitalized words and erratic punctuation, especially dashes, in place 16 Nov 2020, 14:31
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Can someone please explain why A is stylistically better than D?

I lack the grammatical understanding of the punctuation of "-".

Thank you in advance!
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Capitalized words and erratic punctuation, especially dashes, in place 17 Nov 2020, 23:52
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Capitalized words and erratic punctuation, especially dashes, in places that often surprise—if not momentarily halt—the reader, are hallmarks of Dickinson’s poetry.

(A) surprise—if not momentarily halt—the reader, are Correct

(B) surprise—if not momentarily halting—the reader, are Incorrect

participle form is wrong - halting

(C) surprise—if not momentarily halt—the reader, being Incorrect

being uses wrong

(D) surprise if not momentarily halt the reader, are Incorrect

changes meaning,
if not momentarily halt - modifier, so need to separate by , or - ;

(E) surprises if not momentarily halts the reader, are Incorrect

SV error- in places plural, surprises singular form
if not momentarily halts - modifier, so need to separate by , or - ;
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Capitalized words and erratic punctuation, especially dashes, in place 20 Nov 2020, 16:19
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Sajjad1994, can you please post OE for this?
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Capitalized words and erratic punctuation, especially dashes, in place 21 Nov 2020, 05:38
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petrichor
Sajjad1994, can you please post OE for this?
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Official Explanation

The original sentence correctly uses both commas to set off a nonrestrictive phrase and dashes to interrupt the flow of words for effect. It also correctly uses are to agree with the compound subject joined by and.

The correct answer is (A).
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