The first time the young boy saw the large, white house, it felt more like an amusement park than a place to live. The house had a carousel that went all the way around, an enormous, colorful swing set, and a sandbox so big, it looked like it could hold a hundred children. The house even had a private ice cream parlor, complete with a giant ice cream cone fountain. He wondered what it would be like to live there.
Which choice best corrects the punctuation error in the passage?
A. The first time the young boy saw the large, white house, it felt more like an amusement park than a place to live. The house had a carousel that went all the way around, an enormous, colorful swing set, and a sandbox so big, it looked like it could hold a hundred children. The house even had a private ice cream parlor, complete with a giant ice cream cone fountain. He wondered what it would be like to live there.
B. The first time the young boy saw the large, white house, it felt more like an amusement park than a place to live. The house had a carousel that went all the way around, an enormous, colorful swing set, and a sandbox so big; it looked like it could hold a hundred children. The house even had a private ice cream parlor, complete with a giant ice cream cone fountain. He wondered what it would be like to live there.
C. The first time the young boy saw the large, white house, it felt more like an amusement park than a place to live. The house had a carousel that went all the way around an enormous, colorful swing set, and a sandbox so big, it looked like it could hold a hundred children. The house even had a private ice cream parlor, complete with a giant ice cream cone fountain. He wondered what it would be like to live there.
D. The first time the young boy saw the large, white house, it felt more like an amusement park than a place to live. The house had a carousel that went all the way around, an enormous, colorful swing set, and a sandbox so big, it looked like it could hold a hundred children; the house even had a private ice cream parlor, complete with a giant ice cream cone fountain. He wondered what it would be like to live there.
The semicolon after the phrase "a hundred children" is the only punctuation mark in this sentence that is correctly used. The semicolon in choice D correctly links the two independent clauses in the sentence. The other punctuation marks are used to separate a list of items and are not needed to separate the two independent clauses in the sentence. The semicolon is used to separate two related independent clauses in a sentence, which is exactly what we need in this sentence. This choice is the only one that uses punctuation correctly.