Question

which word group should have a semicolon at the end? select the best answer.

as soon as the bank robber turned around, the teller hit the alarm in a flash, proper action was taken.

answer

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as soon as the bank robber turned around, the teller hit the alarm in a flash, proper action was taken.

Explanation:

🆕 New Concept Discovered: Semicolon Usage
Connecting closely related independent clauses

Step 1: Analyze the sentence structure

Let's break down the sentence into its component clauses to see how they are connected:

1. "As soon as the bank robber turned around"

This is a dependent clause (it starts with the subordinating conjunction "As soon as" and cannot stand alone as a complete sentence).

1. "the teller hit the alarm in a flash"

This is an independent clause (it has a subject and a verb and can stand alone as a complete sentence).

1. "proper action was taken"

This is also an independent clause (it has a subject and a verb and can stand alone as a complete sentence).

Step 2: Identify the punctuation error

When a dependent clause introduces an independent clause, we separate them with a comma:

• "As soon as the bank robber turned around, the teller hit the alarm in a flash..." (This part is punctuated correctly).

However, we now have two independent clauses next to each other:

1. "As soon as the bank robber turned around, the teller hit the alarm in a flash"
2. "proper action was taken"

Currently, these two independent clauses are joined only by a comma:

• "...in a flash, proper action was taken."

Joining two independent clauses with only a comma creates a grammatical error called a comma splice.

Step 3: Determine where the semicolon belongs

To fix a comma splice without adding coordinating conjunctions (like and, but, or so), we must replace the weak comma with a semicolon.

A semicolon is used to link two independent clauses that are closely related in thought. Therefore, the semicolon should replace the comma after the word flash.

The corrected sentence structure is:

• "As soon as the bank robber turned around, the teller hit the alarm in a flash; proper action was taken."

The word group that should have a semicolon at the end is "the teller hit the alarm in a flash" (or the selection ending with "in a flash").

Answer:

the teller hit the alarm in a flash