The board members were initially ______ ultimately persuaded by the comprehensive financial projections presented at the quarterly meeting.

Sentence Structure

• The board members
• were initially ______
• ultimately persuaded
  • by the comprehensive financial projections
    • presented at the quarterly meeting.
• Where the blank contains:
  • Common to all: 'skeptical'
  • What varies (?): comma and/or 'but' vs. 'and'

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

The board members were initially...

So we're being told about the state of the board members at first. This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• All of them include 'skeptical' after 'initially'
• What varies is:
  • Whether there's a comma after 'skeptical'
  • Whether we have 'but,' 'and,' or no conjunction

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

The sentence continues: 'ultimately persuaded by the comprehensive financial projections presented at the quarterly meeting.'

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

• The board members had two different states or reactions:
  • Initially (at first) → they were skeptical
  • Ultimately (in the end) → they were persuaded
• What caused them to be persuaded?
  • The comprehensive financial projections
  • These were presented at the quarterly meeting

So the complete picture is:

• The board members started out skeptical but ended up being persuaded by the financial data they saw.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• We have ONE subject: 'The board members'
• We have ONE main verb: 'were'
• But this verb 'were' is describing TWO different states:
  • were... initially skeptical
  • were... ultimately persuaded
• This is called a compound predicate - two descriptions connected to the same subject through the same verb
• These two states are contrasting (skeptical vs. persuaded), so we need 'but' to show this contrast
• Since both predicates share the same subject and verb, and we're just connecting them with 'but,' we DON'T need a comma

So we need: skeptical but (no comma)

The correct answer is Choice A.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Punctuation with Compound Predicates

When you have one subject connected to two predicates (descriptions or actions) through the same verb, joined by a coordinating conjunction like 'but' or 'and,' you generally DON'T use a comma before the conjunction. This is called a compound predicate in grammar terms.

Pattern:

• Subject + Verb + Predicate 1 + [no comma] + conjunction + Predicate 2

Examples:

Example 1: The company announced record profits but warned about future challenges.

• Subject: The company
• Verb: announced... warned (compound verb predicate)
• No comma before 'but'

Example 2: She studied hard but failed the test.

• Subject: She
• Verb: studied... failed
• No comma before 'but'

In our sentence:

• Subject: The board members
• Verb: were
• Predicate 1: initially skeptical
• Predicate 2: ultimately persuaded
• No comma before 'but'

Important contrast: You DO use a comma before 'but' when it connects two independent clauses (complete sentences that could stand alone):

• 'The board members were skeptical, but they were ultimately persuaded.' (Both sides have their own subject)

But when the two predicates share the same subject and verb (compound predicate), no comma is needed:

• 'The board members were initially skeptical but ultimately persuaded.' (Shared subject and verb)