As cheesemaking practices spread throughout Europe and Asia during and after the Neolithic, divergent strategies for preserving milk ________ whereas...

Sentence Structure

• As cheesemaking practices spread
• throughout Europe and Asia
• during and after the Neolithic,
• divergent strategies for preserving milk emerged [?]
• whereas rennet-coagulated cheesemaking became key to milk preservation
• in Europe and Southwest Asia,
• acid-heat coagulation methods became common
• among nomadic herding populations
• of the northeastern Eurasian steppe.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

'As cheesemaking practices spread throughout Europe and Asia during and after the Neolithic,'

• This sets up the time period and context
  • During and after the Neolithic era (when humans were developing agriculture)
  • Cheesemaking was spreading across Europe and Asia

Now we get to the main point:
'divergent strategies for preserving milk emerged'

• Different methods or approaches for preserving milk developed

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at our choices:

• A: emerged (no punctuation)
• B: emerged and
• C: emerged: (colon)
• D: emerged, (comma)

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

'whereas rennet-coagulated cheesemaking became key to milk preservation in Europe and Southwest Asia, acid-heat coagulation methods became common among nomadic herding populations of the northeastern Eurasian steppe.'

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• This part gives us the TWO specific divergent strategies that emerged:
  • First strategy: 'rennet-coagulated cheesemaking became key to milk preservation in Europe and Southwest Asia'
    • One method used rennet (an enzyme) to make cheese
    • This became the main preservation method in Europe and Southwest Asia
  • Second strategy: 'acid-heat coagulation methods became common among nomadic herding populations of the northeastern Eurasian steppe'
    • A different method using acid and heat
    • This was used by nomadic herders in the northeastern Eurasian steppe
• The word 'whereas' signals a contrast between these two approaches

So the complete picture is:

• The sentence first states that different strategies emerged
• Then it explains exactly what those different strategies were

What do we notice about the structure here?

• 'Divergent strategies for preserving milk emerged' is a complete thought
  • It can stand alone as a sentence
• What comes after the blank provides the specific details explaining what those divergent strategies actually were
  • It's not just adding more information
  • It's directly answering the implicit question: "What were these divergent strategies?"

When you have a complete thought followed by a specific explanation or elaboration of what you just said, you need a colon.

The correct answer is C: emerged:

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using a Colon to Introduce an Explanation or Elaboration

When you have a complete independent clause (a thought that could stand alone as a sentence), and you want to follow it with specific details, examples, or an explanation that elaborates on what you just said, you use a colon. The colon signals to the reader: "here comes the specific information about what I just mentioned."

The pattern:

• Complete thought: The committee reached a decision
• Add colon + explanation: The committee reached a decision: they would postpone the vote until next month
• "they would postpone..." explains what the decision was

• Complete thought: The scientist made a surprising discovery
• Add colon + specific details: The scientist made a surprising discovery: the bacteria could survive in temperatures exceeding 200 degrees
• What follows the colon specifies what the discovery was

In our sentence:

• Complete thought: "divergent strategies for preserving milk emerged"
• Colon + explanation: : whereas rennet-coagulated cheesemaking became key in Europe and Southwest Asia, acid-heat coagulation became common among nomadic herding populations
• What follows the colon tells us exactly what those divergent strategies were

The colon is perfect here because the part after it directly explains and elaborates on the "divergent strategies" mentioned before it.