Emperor Ashoka ruled the Maurya Empire in South Asia from roughly 270 to 232 BCE. He is known for enforcing...

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

• Emperor Ashoka
  • ruled the Maurya Empire in South Asia
    • from roughly 270 to 232 BCE.
• He is known for enforcing a moral code
  • called the Law of Piety,
    • which established the sanctity of animal life[?]
      • the just treatment of the elderly,
      • and the abolition of the slave trade.

Where [?] = no punctuation / ; / : / ,

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence gives us historical context:

• Emperor Ashoka ruled the Maurya Empire in South Asia from roughly 270 to 232 BCE.
  • We're learning about an ancient ruler and when he reigned.

Now the second sentence tells us what he's known for:

• He is known for enforcing a moral code called the Law of Piety...

The sentence continues to explain what this Law of Piety established:

• "which established the sanctity of animal life[?]"

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

• We're deciding whether to use no punctuation, a semicolon, a colon, or a comma after "life."

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

• After "life" comes: "the just treatment of the elderly, and the abolition of the slave trade"

Now let's really understand what this is telling us:

• "which established the sanctity of animal life"
  • One thing the Law of Piety established
• "the just treatment of the elderly"
  • A second thing the Law of Piety established
• "and the abolition of the slave trade"
  • A third thing the Law of Piety established

So the complete picture is:

• The Law of Piety established three different things - a list of three items.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• This is a series of three parallel items:
  • Item 1: the sanctity of animal life
  • Item 2: the just treatment of the elderly
  • Item 3: the abolition of the slave trade
• When we have three or more items in a list, we need commas to separate them.
• The structure needs to be: "established [item 1], [item 2], and [item 3]"

So we need a comma after "life" to separate the first item from the second item in this series.

The correct answer is D (life,).

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Commas to Separate Items in a Series

When you list three or more items in a sentence, you need to use commas to separate them. This is called a series (or list in grammar terms), and the pattern works like this:

Basic Pattern:

• The store sells [item 1], [item 2], and [item 3]
• Example: The store sells apples, oranges, and bananas

In Our Question:

• The Law established [item 1], [item 2], and [item 3]
• Specifically: the sanctity of animal life, the just treatment of the elderly, and the abolition of the slave trade

Key Points:

• Each item in the series needs to be separated by a comma
• The comma before "and" (before the last item) is called the Oxford comma or serial comma
• All items should be parallel in structure (here, they're all noun phrases starting with "the")

Why This Matters:

Without commas, readers can't tell where one item ends and another begins, making the sentence confusing and difficult to understand. The commas act like dividers that organize the information clearly.