In her book The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, author Maxine Hong Kingston examines themes _______ childhood,...
GMAT Standard English Conventions : (Grammar) Questions
In her book The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, author Maxine Hong Kingston examines themes _______ childhood, womanhood, and Chinese American identity by intertwining autobiography and mythology.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
of:
of
of—
of,
Sentence Structure
- In her book The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts,
- author Maxine Hong Kingston
- examines themes of(?) childhood, womanhood, and Chinese American identity
- by intertwining autobiography and mythology.
- examines themes of(?) childhood, womanhood, and Chinese American identity
- author Maxine Hong Kingston
Understanding the Meaning
Let's start reading from the beginning:
'In her book The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts,'
- This opening tells us the context
- We're talking about a specific book by Maxine Hong Kingston
'author Maxine Hong Kingston examines themes of...'
This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices:
- A. of:
- B. of
- C. of—
- D. of,
We're deciding whether any punctuation should follow the word "of."
To see what works here, let's read the rest and understand what it's saying!
The sentence continues: 'childhood, womanhood, and Chinese American identity'
- So we have a list of three things
- These are the themes the author examines
'by intertwining autobiography and mythology'
- This tells us HOW Kingston examines these themes
- She mixes her own life story with mythological elements
So the complete picture is:
- Kingston examines themes of childhood, womanhood, and Chinese American identity in her book by blending autobiography and mythology.
What do we notice about the structure here?
The phrase "themes of childhood, womanhood, and Chinese American identity" is one continuous unit:
- "of" is connecting "themes" to what those themes are about
- It's showing the relationship: themes → what they're about
- The word "of" needs to flow directly into the list that follows it
- This creates one smooth phrase without any interruption
So we need no punctuation after "of" - just let it flow naturally into the list. The correct answer is B.
GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED
Prepositions Flow Directly Into What Follows
When you use a preposition (words like "of," "in," "about," "for"), it needs to connect directly to what comes next without any punctuation between them. The preposition and what follows form one cohesive phrase:
Pattern:
- Noun + preposition + what the preposition introduces = one continuous phrase
- No punctuation between the preposition and what follows
Examples:
- Correct: The study of mathematics requires dedication
- "of" flows directly into "mathematics"
- Incorrect: The study of: mathematics requires dedication
- Incorrect: The study of, mathematics requires dedication
- Correct: She has a fear of heights, crowds, and enclosed spaces
- "of" flows directly into the list
- Incorrect: She has a fear of: heights, crowds, and enclosed spaces
In our question:
- "themes of childhood, womanhood, and Chinese American identity"
- The preposition "of" must flow directly into the list without interruption
- This creates the natural, continuous phrase that Standard English requires
of:
- A colon is used to introduce something after a complete thought
- But "examines themes of" isn't complete on its own - it leaves us hanging, waiting to know what the themes are about
- The colon would awkwardly interrupt the natural connection between "of" and the list that follows
of
Correct as explained in the solution above.
of—
- A dash is used to set off extra information or create emphasis
- But the list of themes isn't extra information - it's essential to completing the phrase "themes of..."
- This would break up what should be a continuous, flowing phrase
of,
- A comma here would incorrectly separate "of" from the words that follow it
- The phrase "themes of childhood, womanhood, and Chinese American identity" needs to flow together as one unit
- There's no grammatical reason to pause after "of"