Question

the following extract is missing four commas. insert them in the appropriate places.

the meadow which was covered with yellow, blue and white flowers was a beautiful sight. the native grasses were thriving because the whole area, barring only the pasture had become a registered nature reserve. in fact, it was so pretty that i tried to take a picture, but then i saw that my phone battery had died. disappointed i walked back to the hotel to recharge it.

Explanation:

🆕 New Concept Discovered: Non-essential Clauses and Parenthetical Elements
Setting off extra information that can be removed.

Step 1: Identify non-essential relative clauses

Look at the first sentence:
"The meadow which was covered with yellow, blue and white flowers was a beautiful sight."

The clause "which was covered with yellow, blue and white flowers" adds extra descriptive information about the meadow but is not essential to identify which meadow we are talking about. Non-essential clauses (also called non-restrictive clauses) must be set off with commas on both sides.

• There is already a comma after "yellow" to separate items in a list.
• We need to insert a comma before "which" and a comma after "flowers" to isolate this non-essential clause.

First two commas needed:

1. After "meadow" $

ightarrow$ "...meadow, which..."

1. After "flowers" $

ightarrow$ "...flowers, was..."

Step 2: Identify parenthetical interruptions

Look at the second sentence:
"The native grasses were thriving because the whole area, barring only the pasture had become a registered nature reserve."

The phrase "barring only the pasture" is a parenthetical insertion that interrupts the main flow of the sentence ("the whole area... had become a registered nature reserve").

• There is already a comma before this phrase (after "area").
• To properly enclose this interrupting phrase, we must place a matching comma at the end of it.

Third comma needed:

1. After "pasture" $

ightarrow$ "...pasture, had..."

Step 3: Identify introductory elements

Look at the final sentence:
"Disappointed I walked back to the hotel to recharge it."

The word "Disappointed" is an introductory participle describing the subject "I". Introductory words, phrases, or clauses at the beginning of a sentence should be followed by a comma to separate them from the main independent clause.

Fourth comma needed:

1. After "Disappointed" $

ightarrow$ "Disappointed, I..."

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Answer:

The corrected extract with the four missing commas inserted is:

"The meadow, which was covered with yellow, blue and white flowers, was a beautiful sight. The native grasses were thriving because the whole area, barring only the pasture, had become a registered nature reserve. In fact, it was so pretty that I tried to take a picture, but then I saw that my phone battery had died. Disappointed, I walked back to the hotel to recharge it."