Architectural priorities have evolved considerably over the past century. The Empire State Building in New York exemplifies the early twentieth-centur...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• Architectural priorities
  • have evolved considerably
    • over the past century.

• The Empire State Building in New York
  • exemplifies the early twentieth-century emphasis
    • on vertical height [?] whereas
• the Bosco Verticale in Milan
  • represents contemporary architecture's focus
    • on environmental sustainability and urban greenery.

Understanding the Meaning

The passage starts with context:

• 'Architectural priorities have evolved considerably over the past century'
  • This tells us that what architects care about has changed significantly over the last 100 years.

Then we get our first example:

• 'The Empire State Building in New York exemplifies the early twentieth-century emphasis on vertical height'
  • The Empire State Building is being used as an example
  • It represents what early 1900s architects cared about: building tall (vertical height)

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices:

• A. height: whereas
• B. height, whereas
• C. height; whereas
• D. height. Whereas

We're deciding what punctuation to use before 'whereas' and whether to capitalize it.

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying:

• 'the Bosco Verticale in Milan represents contemporary architecture's focus on environmental sustainability and urban greenery'
  • The Bosco Verticale is another building, this one in Milan
  • It represents what modern architects care about: environmental sustainability and bringing nature into cities (urban greenery)

So the complete picture is:

• We have two buildings being contrasted:
  • Empire State Building = example of old priority (height)
  • Bosco Verticale = example of new priority (sustainability/greenery)

What do we notice about the structure here?

• We have two complete thoughts that could stand alone as sentences:
  • 'The Empire State Building...exemplifies...vertical height' (complete)
  • 'the Bosco Verticale...represents...environmental sustainability' (complete)

• The word 'whereas' is connecting these two thoughts to show they contrast:
  • One building represents one priority
  • whereas (in contrast) the other building represents a different priority

• When 'whereas' connects two complete thoughts like this to show contrast, it should be preceded by a comma:
  • This creates the pattern: main statement, whereas contrasting statement

So we need B (height, whereas) - a comma before 'whereas' to properly connect these two contrasting ideas.

Grammar Concept Applied

Using Commas with Contrasting Conjunctions

When you want to show a contrast between two complete thoughts using 'whereas' (called a subordinating conjunction in grammar terms), you connect them with a comma:

Pattern: Main statement, whereas contrasting statement

Example 1:

• Without contrast: 'The movie was popular. It received poor reviews.'
• With 'whereas' showing contrast: 'The movie was popular, whereas it received poor reviews.'

Example 2:

• 'Many students prefer studying in groups, whereas others work better alone.'
  • First complete thought: Many students prefer studying in groups
  • Comma + whereas
  • Contrasting complete thought: others work better alone

In our question:

• 'The Empire State Building...exemplifies...vertical height, whereas the Bosco Verticale...represents...environmental sustainability'
  • First statement about one building's priority
  • Comma + whereas
  • Contrasting statement about a different building's priority

The comma before 'whereas' signals that a contrast is coming and keeps the related ideas connected in one sentence.