Europe's great museums preserve centuries of artistic achievement. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence features Botticelli masterpieces. The Prado in Madri...

Sentence Structure

Sentence 1:

• Europe's great museums
  • preserve centuries of artistic achievement.

Sentence 2:

• The Uffizi Gallery in Florence
  • features Botticelli masterpieces.

Sentence 3:

• The Prado in Madrid
  • showcases Velázquez portraits.

Sentence 4:

• The Louvre in Paris, however,
  • is home to [?] arguably the world's most famous painting: Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Where [?] represents what varies:

• A. to,
• B. to
• C. to—
• D. to;

Understanding the Meaning

The passage gives us a tour of European museums and their treasures:

• First three sentences establish a pattern:
  • Europe's great museums preserve centuries of art
  • The Uffizi in Florence has Botticelli works
  • The Prado in Madrid has Velázquez portraits

Now the fourth sentence:

• "The Louvre in Paris, however, is home to [blank] arguably the world's most famous painting: Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa."

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• We're deciding what punctuation (if any) should come after "to"
  • to, (with comma)
  • to (no punctuation)
  • to— (with dash)
  • to; (with semicolon)

To see what works here, let's understand what this part of the sentence is doing!

The phrase "is home to" is a common expression:

• It means "houses" or "contains"
• "Home to" works as a unit - it needs to connect to what the museum contains

What comes after "to"?

• "arguably the world's most famous painting"

Let's break this down:

• "arguably"
  • is a word meaning "as can be argued" or "supposedly"
  • it's describing how we might characterize the painting
  • it modifies "the world's most famous painting"

• "the world's most famous painting"
  • is the object - the thing that the Louvre is home to

What do we notice about the structure here?

• "Is home to" is a prepositional phrase
  • "to" needs to connect directly to its object
  • The object is "arguably the world's most famous painting"

• "Arguably" is just an adverb that modifies the noun phrase
  • It flows naturally between "to" and "the world's most famous painting"
  • There's no reason to interrupt this flow with punctuation

Think of it as: "is home to [what?] arguably the world's most famous painting"

The answer flows naturally without any break:

• "is home to arguably the world's most famous painting"

So we need B. to (with no punctuation).

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

No Punctuation Within Prepositional Phrases

When a preposition connects to its object, they form a prepositional phrase that should flow without interruption. Even when adverbs or other modifying words appear between the preposition and its main noun, no punctuation is needed:

Pattern:

• Preposition + (optional adverb/modifier) + Object
• The adverb modifies the object, so it integrates smoothly into the phrase

Examples:

1. "The museum is home to arguably the world's most famous painting"
   • Preposition: "to"
   • Adverb: "arguably"
   • Object: "the world's most famous painting"
   • ✓ No punctuation needed

2. "She walked to almost the end of the street"
   • Preposition: "to"
   • Adverb: "almost"
   • Object: "the end of the street"
   • ✓ No punctuation needed

3. "They arrived at approximately noon"
   • Preposition: "at"
   • Adverb: "approximately"
   • Object: "noon"
   • ✓ No punctuation needed

How this applies to our question:
The phrase "is home to" uses "to" as a preposition that needs to connect to its object ("the world's most famous painting"). The adverb "arguably" modifies that object, so it fits naturally into the prepositional phrase without any punctuation: "home to arguably the world's most famous painting."