In 2008, two years after the death of science fiction writer Octavia Butler, the Huntington Library in ______ received a...

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

Sentence 1:

• In 2008,
• two years after the death of science fiction writer Octavia Butler,
• the Huntington Library in California [?]
  • received a collection of more than 8,000 items, including Butler's private notes, research materials, manuscripts, photos, and drawings.

Sentence 2:

• Today,
• the Octavia E. Butler Collection
  • is one of the most researched archives at the library.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's read through and understand what this is telling us:

• 'In 2008'
  • Sets up when this happened

• 'two years after the death of science fiction writer Octavia Butler'
  • Gives us more context about the timing - it was two years after Butler died

• 'the Huntington Library in California'
  • This is telling us about a specific library and where it's located

This is where we have the blank - right after "California."

Let's look at our choices:

• We can add a comma, a colon, a dash, or no punctuation at all after "California"

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

• 'received a collection of more than 8,000 items'
  • This tells us what the library did - it received a collection
  • This is the main action of the sentence

• 'including Butler's private notes, research materials, manuscripts, photos, and drawings'
  • This describes what was in the collection

So the complete picture is:

• The sentence is telling us that in 2008, the Huntington Library (which is in California) received this huge collection of Butler's materials.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• 'the Huntington Library in California' is the complete subject
  • It's telling us WHO received the collection
  • 'in California' is just telling us where the library is located

• 'received' is the verb - the main action
  • It comes right after the subject
  • It tells us what the library did

• The subject needs to connect directly to its verb
  • No punctuation should interrupt this connection
  • 'in California' is just part of describing which library we're talking about

So we need: no punctuation after California - the subject flows directly into the verb "received."

The correct answer is Choice D: California

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Keeping Subjects Connected to Their Verbs

One of the fundamental rules of sentence structure is that subjects and their verbs stay together without punctuation separating them. Even when the subject is complex and includes descriptive phrases, it connects directly to its verb:

Pattern:

• Subject (even with additional phrases) + Verb = No punctuation between them

Examples:

1. Simple:
   • ✓ "The library received a collection."
   • ✗ "The library, received a collection."
2. Subject with prepositional phrase:
   • ✓ "The library in California received a collection."
   • ✗ "The library in California, received a collection."
3. Subject with multiple descriptive elements:
   • ✓ "The library in California, one of the nation's premier research institutions, received a collection."
   • Note: Here commas are used to set off the descriptive phrase "one of the nation's premier research institutions," but the subject as a whole ("The library in California... research institutions") still connects directly to "received" without punctuation

In this question:

• Subject: "the Huntington Library in California"
• Verb: "received"
• Result: These connect directly without any punctuation mark between them

The key is recognizing what's part of the subject (including location phrases like "in California") versus when the verb begins - and keeping that subject-verb connection uninterrupted.