When working with endangered languages, linguists must find creative ways to preserve vocabulary and grammar before they vanish completely. While...

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

• When working with endangered languages,
  • linguists must find creative ways
    • to preserve vocabulary and grammar
      • before they vanish completely.

• While traditional methods focus on static audio recordings,
  • a research team at the University of Melbourne
    • has implemented something (?) enabling
      • native speakers to build collaborative digital dictionaries
        • through crowd-sourced mobile applications.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start from the beginning:

"When working with endangered languages, linguists must find creative ways to preserve vocabulary and grammar before they vanish completely."

• This sets up the challenge:
  • Linguists need creative preservation methods for endangered languages.

Now the second sentence:

"While traditional methods focus on static audio recordings, a research team at the University of Melbourne has implemented something unprecedented..."

• Traditional methods = just static audio recordings
• But this research team has done something unprecedented (something never done before)

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

• A: semicolon, then "enabling"
• B: colon, then "enabling"
• C: period, making "Enabling" a new sentence
• D: comma, then "enabling" with a colon after it

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

"...enabling native speakers to build collaborative digital dictionaries through crowd-sourced mobile applications."

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• "enabling native speakers to build collaborative digital dictionaries..."
  • This isn't just additional information
  • This is explaining what that "unprecedented" thing actually IS
  • The unprecedented thing = the fact that it enables native speakers to build these dictionaries themselves

So the complete picture is:

• The team implemented something unprecedented
• That unprecedented thing is specifically: enabling native speakers to create collaborative dictionaries through mobile apps

What do we notice about the structure here?

• Before the blank: "has implemented something unprecedented"
  • This is a complete thought up to this point
  • But it leaves us wondering: what IS this unprecedented thing?

• After the blank: "enabling native speakers to build..."
  • This explains or defines what that unprecedented thing is
  • It's not a complete sentence on its own - it's describing/explaining

When we have a complete statement followed by an explanation or elaboration of something just mentioned, we use a colon to introduce that explanation.

The correct answer is B: unprecedented: enabling

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Colons to Introduce Explanations

When you have a complete statement that mentions something, and you want to follow it with information that explains, defines, or elaborates on that thing, use a colon (this is called an explanatory appositive in grammar terms):

Pattern: Complete statement about something : explanation of what that thing is

Example 1:

• The team discovered something remarkable: a method for preserving oral histories digitally
  • "discovered something remarkable" = complete statement
  • colon introduces what that remarkable thing is

Example 2:

• She had one goal: winning the championship
  • "had one goal" = complete statement
  • colon introduces what that goal is

In our question:

• "has implemented something unprecedented: enabling native speakers to build..."
  • "implemented something unprecedented" = complete statement
  • colon introduces what that unprecedented thing actually is

The key is that what comes before the colon must be a complete thought, and what comes after explains or defines something mentioned in that thought.