Question

literary scholars frequently refer to bone lanterns as the defining novella of the 1980s japanese minimalism movement, a classification reinforced by its inclusion in three major university syllabi. author kyoko watanabe resisted the label, ___ maintaining that the book’s structure was inspired more by haiku rhythm than by minimalist theory.
16
which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of standard english?
a though
b though,
c though;
d though:

Explanation:

To determine the correct choice, we analyze the sentence structure. The first part states the author resisted the label, and the second part provides her reason. "Though" is a conjunctive adverb here, and when used to connect two independent clauses (or in this case, a clause and a phrase that functions as an explanation), a comma should follow it. Option A lacks the comma, option C uses a semicolon (incorrect as "maintaining..." is not an independent clause), and option D uses a colon (incorrect usage here). Option B with "though," correctly separates the two parts of the sentence following Standard English conventions.

Answer:

B. though,