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Many animals communicate with each other using a variety of sounds, scents, and visual signals, for example, birds may use songs, insects may use pheromones, and chimpanzees may use facial expressions. Which sentence best exemplifies the use of a semicolon in the passage?

SAT · English · previous-year question

  1. A.Many animals communicate with each other using a variety of sounds, scents, and visual signals; for example, birds may use songs.correct
  2. B.Many animals communicate with each other using a variety of sounds, scents, and visual signals, for example; birds may use songs.
  3. C.Many animals communicate with each other using a variety of sounds, scents, and visual signals; birds may use songs, insects may use pheromones, and chimpanzees may use facial expressions.
  4. D.Many animals communicate with each other using a variety of sounds; scents, and visual signals, for example, birds may use songs.

Answer

A. Many animals communicate with each other using a variety of sounds, scents, and visual signals; for example, birds may use songs.

Explanation

The semicolon is used correctly in choice A to separate two independent clauses. The first clause is "Many animals communicate with each other using a variety of sounds, scents, and visual signals." The second clause is "for example, birds may use songs." Both clauses could stand alone as complete sentences, and the semicolon is used to connect the clauses because the second clause provides an example of the first clause. The other choices are incorrect because the semicolon is used incorrectly to separate two phrases (choice B), to separate more than two clauses (choice C), or to separate a p

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