The ancient city of Pompeii offers archaeologists an unprecedented window into Roman daily life, preserved by volcanic ash in 79...

Sentence Structure

Sentence 1:

• The ancient city of Pompeii
  • offers archaeologists an unprecedented window
    • into Roman daily life,
      • preserved by volcanic ash in 79 CE.

Sentence 2:

• Throughout most Mediterranean regions,
  • architectural remains
    • from this period
  • are fragmentary [?]

• at Pompeii,
  • however,
  • entire buildings stand intact
    • with frescoes, mosaics, and even wooden furniture
      • surviving the centuries.

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence sets up the context:

• Pompeii is special because volcanic ash preserved it in 79 CE
  • giving us an 'unprecedented window' into Roman daily life

Now the second sentence begins:

• 'Throughout most Mediterranean regions, architectural remains from this period are fragmentary...'

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• We're deciding between a comma, a semicolon, 'and,' or nothing

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

The sentence continues:

• 'at Pompeii, however, entire buildings stand intact with frescoes, mosaics, and even wooden furniture surviving the centuries.'

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

• The first part: 'Throughout most Mediterranean regions, architectural remains from this period are fragmentary'
  • In most places around the Mediterranean, we only have fragments
  • Incomplete pieces of buildings from this time period

• The second part: 'at Pompeii, however, entire buildings stand intact'
  • At Pompeii specifically, it's different
  • We have COMPLETE buildings, not just fragments
  • The word 'however' signals this contrast

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The part before the blank: 'Throughout most Mediterranean regions, architectural remains from this period are fragmentary'
  • Subject: architectural remains
  • Verb: are
  • This is a complete thought that could stand alone as its own sentence

• The part after the blank: 'at Pompeii, however, entire buildings stand intact...'
  • Subject: entire buildings
  • Verb: stand
  • This is also a complete thought that could stand alone as its own sentence

So we have: Complete sentence [blank] Complete sentence

When you have two complete sentences that are closely related in meaning, you need proper punctuation to join them. A semicolon does exactly this - it connects two complete thoughts while showing they're related.

The correct answer is B (semicolon).

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Joining Two Complete Sentences with a Semicolon

When you have two complete sentences (each with its own subject and verb, expressing a complete thought) that are closely related in meaning, you can join them with a semicolon:

Pattern:

• Complete sentence; complete sentence

Example 1:

• 'The experiment failed, the researchers tried a different approach' (comma splice)
• 'The experiment failed; the researchers tried a different approach' (semicolon correctly joins)

Example 2:

• 'Many species went extinct during this period Pompeii's ruins survived' (run-on)
• 'Many species went extinct during this period; Pompeii's ruins survived' (semicolon provides proper separation)

In our question:

• First complete sentence: 'Throughout most Mediterranean regions, architectural remains from this period are fragmentary'
• Second complete sentence: 'at Pompeii, however, entire buildings stand intact...'
• Relationship: These sentences present contrasting situations (fragments vs. complete buildings)
• Solution: Semicolon joins them while maintaining the grammatical independence of each thought

This punctuation (called a semicolon in grammar terms) is especially effective when the second sentence contrasts with, qualifies, or expands on the first - exactly what we see here with the 'most regions' vs. 'Pompeii' contrast.