Question

if any of the underlined segments has an error, select the answer option that identifies the error. if no segments have an error, select
o error.\

after age sixty, many americans find they must adjust to: misplacing important papers, forgetting peoples names, gaining hard-to-lose pounds, and trying to convince themselves that these problems are perfectly normal.

sixty, many
to: misplacing
pounds, and
no error

Explanation:

Analyze the introductory phrase punctuation

The phrase "After age sixty" is an introductory prepositional phrase. It is correctly followed by a comma before the main clause "many Americans find...". Thus, "sixty, many" is grammatically correct.

Analyze the colon usage

A colon must be preceded by a complete independent clause (a complete sentence). The clause "After age sixty, many Americans find they must adjust to" is not an independent clause because "adjust to" requires an object to complete its meaning. Therefore, placing a colon after "to" is incorrect.

Analyze the list punctuation and parallelism

The list consists of parallel gerund phrases: "misplacing...", "forgetting...", "gaining...", and "trying...". The comma before the coordinating conjunction "and" ("pounds, and") is a correct use of the serial (Oxford) comma.

Answer:

• (A) sixty, many
• (B) to: misplacing (Correct answer)
• (C) pounds, and
• (D) No error