Question #N486
When the teacher asked, "What is the capital of France?" the students all shouted "Paris!" in unison. The teacher smiled, pleased with their enthusiastic response, and began to discuss the history of the city.
Which choice most effectively combines the sentences at the underlined portion to create a grammatically correct and stylistically appropriate sentence?Correct Answer is: B
Choice B is the best option because it uses a comma to separate the introductory phrase, "pleased with their enthusiastic response," from the main clause. This creates a grammatically correct and stylistically appropriate sentence. Choice A creates a run-on sentence because it lacks necessary punctuation to separate the two independent clauses. Choice C is awkward because it uses the present participle "being" to create a modifier, and choice D is awkward because it uses the past participle "having been" to create a modifier. Both of these choices make the sentence unnecessarily wordy.