Michelangelo spent four years painting the Sistine Chapel's _____ between 1508 and 1512, his masterwork depicting over 300 biblical figures...

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

Michelangelo spent four years painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling [?] between 1508 and 1512,

• his masterwork depicting over 300 biblical figures
  • across the vaulted surface.

Where [?] = what varies in the choices:

• A: . Completed
• B: and completed
• C: , completed
• D: completed (no punctuation)

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

"Michelangelo spent four years painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling"

• This is telling us about Michelangelo's work
• He spent four years painting the famous ceiling

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices:

• They're asking us what punctuation (if any) goes after "ceiling" and before the word "completed"

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

The sentence continues: "between 1508 and 1512, his masterwork depicting over 300 biblical figures across the vaulted surface."

Now let's understand what this complete sentence is telling us:

• The main action is:
  • Michelangelo spent four years painting the Sistine Chapel's ceiling

• Then "completed between 1508 and 1512"
  • This is giving us additional information about the ceiling
  • It's telling us when the ceiling (the painting project) was finished
  • Notice we already have our main verb "spent" - so "completed" isn't acting as another main verb here

• Then "his masterwork depicting over 300 biblical figures across the vaulted surface"
  • This gives even more description
  • It's telling us about the scope and content of what he painted

What do we notice about the structure here?

• "completed between 1508 and 1512" is a descriptive phrase
  • It's providing extra information about "the ceiling"
  • It's the pattern: noun + descriptive modifier

• When you have a noun followed by a descriptive phrase that adds additional information:
  • You need a comma to separate them
  • The comma creates a natural pause point
  • It signals "here's some extra descriptive information about what I just mentioned"

So we need: ceiling, completed - Choice C.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Commas with Descriptive Modifying Phrases

When you want to add extra descriptive information about a noun you just mentioned, you can use a comma followed by a modifying phrase (this type is called a participial phrase in grammar terms):

Pattern: Noun, descriptive modifier providing additional information

Example 1:

• Without modifier: "The scientist published her findings"
• With modifier: "The scientist published her findings, completed after ten years of research"
• "findings" = noun
• "completed after ten years of research" = modifier telling us when the findings were completed

Example 2:

• Without modifier: "We visited the ancient temple"
• With modifier: "We visited the ancient temple, built in the 3rd century"
• "temple" = noun
• "built in the 3rd century" = modifier telling us when the temple was built

In our question:

• "the Sistine Chapel's ceiling" = noun
• "completed between 1508 and 1512" = modifier telling us when the ceiling was completed
• The comma signals: "here's additional descriptive information about what I just mentioned"

The comma creates the necessary pause point and clearly separates the noun from its descriptive modifier.