In addition to advocating for South America's independence in two political treatises, the Cartagena Manifesto and the Letter from Jamaica,...

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

• In addition to advocating for South America's independence
  • in two political treatises,
    • the Cartagena Manifesto and the Letter from Jamaica,
• Simón Bolívar
  • personally led armies against the Spanish,
    • liberating three South American territories
      • —New Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama),
      • Venezuela, and
      • Quito (present-day Ecuador[?])
  • from colonial rule.

Understanding the Meaning

The sentence starts by telling us what Bolívar did beyond just military action:

• 'In addition to advocating for South America's independence in two political treatises'
  • He wrote political documents arguing for independence
  • We get the specific titles: the Cartagena Manifesto and the Letter from Jamaica

Now we get to the main action:

• 'Simón Bolívar personally led armies against the Spanish'
  • This is what he directly did - military leadership

The sentence continues with the result:

• 'liberating three South American territories'
  • This tells us the outcome of leading those armies

Now comes a dash, which introduces specifics about those territories:

• '—New Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama), Venezuela, and Quito (present-day Ecuador[?])'

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices - they differ in what punctuation comes after "Ecuador" and the closing parenthesis.

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

The sentence continues:

• 'from colonial rule'
  • This completes the phrase 'liberating...from'
  • It tells us what these territories were liberated FROM

Now let's understand the complete structure:

• The main action is: 'liberating three South American territories...from colonial rule'
  • That's one complete phrase: liberate something FROM something
• The dash inserted a list of the specific territories
  • The list interrupts between 'territories' and 'from colonial rule'

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The dash opens an interruption - it introduces the detailed list of territories
  • But the sentence isn't finished yet
  • After the list, we need to return to the main structure: 'from colonial rule'
• When a dash opens an interruption in the middle of a sentence (not at the end), you need a matching dash to close it
  • This shows where the interruption ends
  • And signals that we're returning to the main sentence flow

The pattern looks like this:

• 'liberating territories —[list of specific territories]— from colonial rule'

So we need Ecuador)— to close both the parenthesis AND close the dash-interruption before returning to 'from colonial rule.'

The correct answer is D.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Paired Dashes to Set Off Interrupting Material

When you use a dash to introduce an interruption, elaboration, or list in the middle of a sentence (not at the end), you need a second dash to close that interruption and signal the return to the main sentence structure. This is called using paired dashes (similar to how you'd use paired parentheses or paired commas).

Pattern:

• Main sentence —interrupting/elaborating material— continuation of sentence

Examples:

1. With paired dashes: The three students —Maria, James, and Lin— received scholarships.
   • Main structure: "The three students...received scholarships"
   • The list of names interrupts between subject and verb
   • Opening dash introduces the list; closing dash returns us to the verb
2. With single dash at end: The three students received scholarships—Maria, James, and Lin.
   • Here the list comes at the very end
   • Only one dash needed because there's no continuation

In our question:

• Main structure: "liberating three South American territories...from colonial rule"
• The detailed list of territories (—New Granada..., Venezuela, and Quito...) interrupts
• Opening dash (—) introduces the list
• Closing dash (—) after "Ecuador)" returns us to "from colonial rule"
• Result: "liberating three South American territories —New Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama), Venezuela, and Quito (present-day Ecuador)— from colonial rule"

The key is recognizing when a sentence continues after the interruption - that's when you need the second dash to close it properly.