In her groundbreaking study of coral reef ecosystems, marine biologist Sylvia Earle describes the ocean depths as "teeming with undiscovered...

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 her groundbreaking study of coral reef ecosystems,
  • marine biologist Sylvia Earle
    • describes the ocean depths
      • as "teeming with undiscovered life(?)",
        • a perspective
          • that has inspired decades of deep-sea exploration
            • and conservation efforts
              • aimed at protecting marine biodiversity worldwide.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

In her groundbreaking study of coral reef ecosystems,

• marine biologist Sylvia Earle describes the ocean depths
  • as "teeming with undiscovered life"
    • She's characterizing the ocean depths as being full of life that hasn't been discovered yet.

This is where we have the blank – right after the closing quotation mark.

Let's look at the choices:

• Choice A: life",
• Choice B: life"; and
• Choice C: life" and
• Choice D: life"

So we're deciding what punctuation (if any) comes after the quotation, and whether we need the word "and."

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

The sentence continues:

• "a perspective that has inspired decades of deep-sea exploration and conservation efforts aimed at protecting marine biodiversity worldwide."

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

• "a perspective"
  • This is referring back to Earle's description of the ocean depths as "teeming with undiscovered life"
  • That description/viewpoint is the "perspective" being mentioned

• "that has inspired decades of deep-sea exploration and conservation efforts"
  • This perspective has motivated decades of work
  • Both exploration (discovering what's down there) and conservation (protecting it)

So the complete picture is:

• Sylvia Earle describes the ocean depths as teeming with undiscovered life,
• and this viewpoint/perspective has inspired a lot of subsequent work in marine science.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• We have a complete statement:
  • "Sylvia Earle describes the ocean depths as 'teeming with undiscovered life'"

• Then we have "a perspective that has inspired..."
  • This is a noun phrase that's giving us additional information about the description Earle gave
  • It's renaming or adding detail about that quotation – telling us what impact it had

When we have a complete statement followed by a noun phrase that adds descriptive information like this, we need a comma to set off that descriptive phrase.

The comma goes AFTER the closing quotation mark (that's how we punctuate with quotations).

So we need: life",

The correct answer is Choice A: life",

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Commas to Set Off Descriptive Noun Phrases

When you have a complete statement followed by a noun phrase that provides additional descriptive information about what you just said (called an appositive in grammar terms), you need a comma to set off that descriptive phrase:

Pattern:

• Complete statement + comma + descriptive noun phrase

Example 1:

• The scientist made a groundbreaking discovery, a finding that would change medicine forever
• Complete statement: "The scientist made a groundbreaking discovery"
• Comma separates
• Descriptive noun phrase: "a finding that would change medicine forever" (gives more information about the discovery)

Example 2:

• Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays, a body of work that continues to influence literature today
• Complete statement: "Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays"
• Comma separates
• Descriptive noun phrase: "a body of work that continues..." (describes the plays)

In our question:

• Sylvia Earle describes the ocean depths as "teeming with undiscovered life," a perspective that has inspired decades of deep-sea exploration
• Complete statement: "Sylvia Earle describes the ocean depths as 'teeming with undiscovered life'"
• Comma separates (placed after the closing quotation mark)
• Descriptive noun phrase: "a perspective that has inspired..." (describes the impact of her characterization)

Special note about quotations: When the descriptive phrase comes after a quotation, the comma goes AFTER the closing quotation mark, not inside it (unless the comma is part of the quote itself).