The technology sector experienced unprecedented growth during the pandemic years. Several major companies—including those in e-commerce, cloud computi...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this passage. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentences as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

Sentence 1:

• The technology sector
  • experienced unprecedented growth
    • during the pandemic years.

Sentence 2:

• Several major companies
  • —including those in e-commerce,
    • cloud computing,
    • and digital communications [?]
  • reported record profits
    • throughout 2020 and 2021.

Where [?] represents:

• A: )
• B: ,
• C: (nothing)
• D: —

Understanding the Meaning

Let's read from the beginning:

First sentence sets the context:

• 'The technology sector experienced unprecedented growth during the pandemic years.'
  • This is telling us that tech companies did really well during COVID.

Now the second sentence gives us specifics:

• 'Several major companies—'
  • Here we have our subject: "several major companies"
  • Notice that dash (—) that appears right after? That's important.
  • That dash signals we're about to get some interrupting information
    • like a detour that gives us more details before the sentence continues.

• 'including those in e-commerce, cloud computing, and digital communications'
  • This is giving us examples of what kinds of companies we're talking about
  • This is the interrupting information that started with that opening dash

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• A gives us a closing parenthesis: )
• B gives us a comma: ,
• C gives us no punctuation
• D gives us a dash: —

Now here's what we need to see: To understand what punctuation works here, let's think about what comes next and how this sentence is structured!

• 'reported record profits throughout 2020 and 2021'
  • This is the main verb and the rest of the main sentence
  • "Several major companies...reported record profits"

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The main sentence is: "Several major companies reported record profits"
  • Subject: Several major companies
  • Verb: reported

• But there's extra information inserted in the middle:
  • "including those in e-commerce, cloud computing, and digital communications"
  • This information is set off from the main sentence

• That information STARTED with a dash (—)
  • When you use a dash to open an interrupting element like this,
  • You need to use a matching dash to close it
  • This returns us to the main sentence

So we need: communications— (the closing dash to match the opening dash)

The correct answer is D.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Paired Dashes to Set Off Interrupting Information

When you insert extra information into the middle of a sentence using dashes (called parenthetical elements in grammar terms), you need to use matching dashes to both open and close the interruption. This signals to the reader: "Here's some bonus information, but then we'll return to the main sentence."

The Pattern:

• Main sentence start + DASH + interrupting information + DASH + main sentence continues

Example 1:

• Main sentence: "The museum opens at 9 AM."
• With interruption: "The museum—one of the oldest in the city—opens at 9 AM."
• Opening dash after "museum"
• Closing dash after "city"
• Main sentence resumes with "opens"

Example 2:

• Main sentence: "Dr. Chen published her findings last week."
• With interruption: "Dr. Chen—after years of careful research—published her findings last week."
• Opening dash after "Chen"
• Closing dash after "research"
• Main sentence resumes with "published"

In our question:

• Main sentence: "Several major companies reported record profits."
• With interruption: "Several major companies—including those in e-commerce, cloud computing, and digital communications—reported record profits."
• Opening dash after "companies"
• Closing dash needed after "communications" ✓
• Main sentence resumes with "reported"

Key principle: Paired punctuation must match. Just like parentheses must come in pairs ( ), dashes used to set off interrupting information must also come in pairs — —. You cannot open with one type and close with another.