Question #N547
“The great, the small, the young, the old—all have a stake in the future of this city,” the mayor proclaimed, addressing the diverse crowd gathered for the town’s annual Founders Day celebration. “And it is up to us to ensure that our community continues to grow, to thrive, and to ______.
Which choice completes the sentence with the most logical and grammatically correct transition?
A. flourish.
B. flourish;
C. flourish—
D. flourish,
Correct Answer is: A
The sentence is a complete thought that needs no additional punctuation. The use of a semicolon (B) or a dash (C) would be incorrect because these punctuation marks are used to separate two complete clauses. The use of a comma (D) would be incorrect because it would create a comma splice, which happens when two complete clauses are improperly joined by a comma. Only choice A is correct.