Question

which is the best way to complete the text?

its propeller buzzing loudly, the seaplane taxied across the lake past the
__________ steadily increased its speed in preparation for takeoff.

sailboats; and

sailboats and

sailboats, and

Explanation:

To determine the correct completion, we analyze the sentence structure. The first part describes the seaplane taxiing past sailboats, and the second part describes it increasing speed. We need a punctuation and conjunction that properly connects these two independent clauses (or related parts). A semicolon can be used to separate two closely related independent clauses, and then "and" to continue the action. The option "sailboats; and" uses a semicolon to separate the two parts of the sentence (the taxiing past sailboats and the speed increase) and then "and" to show the sequence of actions. The other options either lack the appropriate punctuation (like "sailboats and" which would make the sentence structure incorrect as it would combine the two actions in a less clear way) or use a comma which is not appropriate here (a comma alone can't separate two independent clauses without a conjunction, but in this case, the semicolon is better to show the two related actions as separate but connected parts of the seaplane's actions).

Answer:

sailboats; and