Santa Clara Pueblo artist Roxanne Swentzell's sculpture Mud Woman Rolls On consists of five human figures made of clay and...

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:

• Santa Clara Pueblo artist Roxanne Swentzell's sculpture Mud Woman Rolls On
  • consists of five human figures
    • made of clay and plant fiber and
    • arranged in descending size;
• each figure holds the smaller one in front of it.

Sentence 2:

• The arrangement of the figures,
  • according to Swentzell(?),
• represents her idea
  • that 'we all come from the Earth,
    • generation after generation.'

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start from the beginning.

The first sentence tells us:

• Roxanne Swentzell is a Santa Clara Pueblo artist
• She created a sculpture called "Mud Woman Rolls On"
• This sculpture has five human figures
  • made of clay and plant fiber
  • arranged in descending size (each one smaller than the last)
  • each figure holds the smaller one in front of it

Now we move to the second sentence where we have the blank:

• "The arrangement of the figures, according to ______ represents her idea..."

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

• All choices give us "Swentzell"
• But they differ in what punctuation comes after:
  • no punctuation
  • comma
  • colon
  • dash

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

The complete sentence reads:

• "The arrangement of the figures, according to Swentzell, represents her idea that 'we all come from the Earth, generation after generation.'"

So this sentence is telling us:

• The way the figures are arranged (each holding the next smaller one)
• represents Swentzell's idea about generations coming from the Earth
• "according to Swentzell" tells us whose interpretation this is

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The core sentence is: "The arrangement of the figures represents her idea..."
  • Subject: "The arrangement of the figures"
  • Verb: "represents"
  • Object: "her idea that..."

• "According to Swentzell" is extra information inserted in the middle
  • It tells us the source of this interpretation
  • But it's not essential to the basic sentence structure
  • It's an interrupting phrase

• When you insert extra information in the middle of a sentence:
  • You need punctuation on BOTH sides to set it off
  • The phrase starts with a comma: "figures, according to"
  • So it must end with a comma too: "Swentzell,"

The correct answer is B. Swentzell,

The comma after Swentzell completes the pair of commas that sets off this interrupting phrase, allowing the sentence to flow smoothly to its main verb "represents."

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Setting Off Interrupting Information with Matching Punctuation

When you insert additional information into the middle of a sentence - something that provides extra details but isn't essential to the basic sentence structure (called a parenthetical element in grammar terms) - you need to use matching punctuation on both sides:

Pattern 1: Two commas

• Main sentence: The sculpture represents an important idea
• With interruption: The sculpture, according to the artist, represents an important idea
  • Opening punctuation: comma after "sculpture"
  • Closing punctuation: comma after "artist"

Pattern 2: Two dashes

• The sculpture—according to the artist—represents an important idea
  • Both sides use dashes

Pattern 3: Two parentheses

• The sculpture (according to the artist) represents an important idea
  • Both sides use parentheses

The key rule: You cannot mix these punctuation marks. If you start with a comma, you must end with a comma. If you start with a dash, you must end with a dash.

In this question:

• Core sentence: "The arrangement of the figures represents her idea..."
• Interrupting phrase: "according to Swentzell"
• Opening punctuation: comma after "figures"
• Required closing punctuation: comma after "Swentzell" ✓