Question

long before digital voice assistants, ibm introduced the shoebox, a calculator that could recognize 16 spoken words. it debuted at the seattle worlds fair, where stunned visitors watched the device perform simple arithmetic in response to human ____ early glimpse of voice - controlled computing.
14
which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of standard english?
a speech an
b speech—an
c speech; an
d speech and an

Explanation:

To determine the correct choice, we analyze the sentence structure. The phrase "early glimpse of voice - controlled computing" is an appositive that further explains the situation of the device responding to human speech. A dash is appropriate here to set off the appositive, and "an" is used before "early" (since "early" starts with a vowel sound). Option A has incorrect punctuation (no dash or proper separation). Option C uses a semicolon, which is not suitable as the two parts are not independent clauses. Option D uses "and", which does not fit the appositive structure. So the correct choice is B.

Answer:

B. speech—an