Winding through the ice atop Norway's Jotunheim Mountains is the Lendbreen pass, an ancient route that was used by hunters,...

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:

• Winding through the ice atop Norway's Jotunheim Mountains
• is the Lendbreen pass,
  • an ancient route
    • that was used by hunters, farmers, traders, and travelers in the Middle Ages before eventually falling into disuse.

Sentence 2:

• Recently,
• archeologists
  • have unearthed[?] knives, horseshoes, wool tunics, and thousands of other artifacts from the icy pass.

Where [?] = : or , or — or nothing

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence gives us context:

• It's describing the Lendbreen pass
  • a route through the ice in Norway's mountains
  • used by various people in the Middle Ages
  • eventually stopped being used

Now the second sentence tells us about recent discoveries:

• "Recently, archeologists have unearthed..."

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

• A adds a colon (:)
• B adds a comma (,)
• C adds a dash (—)
• D has no punctuation

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

• "...knives, horseshoes, wool tunics, and thousands of other artifacts from the icy pass."

So the complete sentence tells us:

• Archeologists have recently dug up various historical items (knives, horseshoes, tunics, etc.) from this ancient pass.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• We have a basic sentence pattern:
  • Subject: archeologists
  • Verb: have unearthed
  • Object: the things they dug up (knives, horseshoes, wool tunics, etc.)
  • Where they found them: from the icy pass
• The list of items is the direct object of the verb "unearthed"
  • It's answering the question "What did they unearth?"
  • The verb flows directly into what was unearthed
• There's no grammatical reason to interrupt this connection
  • A verb and its object work together as a unit
  • You don't put punctuation between them

The correct answer is D (no punctuation). The verb "unearthed" flows directly into its object—the list of artifacts.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Verbs and Their Objects: No Punctuation Between Them

When a verb takes a direct object (the thing receiving the action), the object follows immediately without any punctuation—even when the object is a list of multiple items:

Pattern: Subject + Verb + Direct Object (even if it's a list)

Example 1:

• ✓ "She bought apples, oranges, and bananas."
• ✗ "She bought: apples, oranges, and bananas."
• ✗ "She bought, apples, oranges, and bananas."

Example 2:

• ✓ "The museum displays paintings, sculptures, and photographs."
• ✗ "The museum displays: paintings, sculptures, and photographs."

In our question:

• Verb: "have unearthed"
• Direct object: "knives, horseshoes, wool tunics, and thousands of other artifacts"
• These connect directly with no punctuation

Note about colons and lists: You DO use a colon before a list when you have a complete independent clause that explicitly introduces the list (called an independent clause in grammar terms):

• ✓ "They found three categories of items: tools, clothing, and equipment."

But when the list is simply the verb's object—when it's answering "what" the verb acts upon—no punctuation is needed.