With the development of new technologies that use natural resources more efficiently, the overall consumption of those resources might be...

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:

• With the development of new technologies
  • that use natural resources more efficiently,
  the overall consumption of those resources
  • might be expected to decrease.

Sentence 2:

• Economists have observed
  • that improvements in efficiency often correlate negatively
    • with resource [?, though, ?]
• efficiency gains,
  • lowering the cost of use,
  may increase demand
  • to the extent that resource consumption ultimately rises.

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence sets up an expectation:

• With new technologies that use resources more efficiently,
  • we might expect overall consumption to decrease.

The second sentence begins:

• 'Economists have observed that improvements in efficiency often correlate negatively with resource conservation'
  • This is telling us something surprising -
  • efficiency improvements have a NEGATIVE correlation with conservation
  • meaning they work against conservation, not for it

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• They're all testing how to punctuate around "though"
• A: conservation, though,
• B: conservation; though
• C: conservation, though;
• D: conservation, though

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

The sentence continues:

• 'efficiency gains, lowering the cost of use, may increase demand to the extent that resource consumption ultimately rises.'

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• 'efficiency gains'
  • This is what we're talking about - when we become more efficient

• 'lowering the cost of use'
  • This describes what efficiency gains do - they make things cheaper to use

• 'may increase demand to the extent that resource consumption ultimately rises'
  • Here's the key: when something becomes cheaper, people use MORE of it
  • So much more that consumption actually RISES instead of falling

So the complete picture is:

• Even though efficiency should help us conserve resources,
• It actually backfires because lower costs lead to MORE usage overall

What do we notice about the structure here?

• First part: 'Economists have observed that improvements in efficiency often correlate negatively with resource conservation'
  • This is a complete thought - has subject, verb, expresses complete idea
  • Could stand alone as a sentence

• Second part: 'efficiency gains, lowering the cost of use, may increase demand to the extent that resource consumption ultimately rises'
  • 'efficiency gains' = subject
  • 'may increase' = verb
  • This is also a complete thought
  • Could stand alone as a sentence

• 'though' = transitional word showing contrast between these two ideas

When we have two complete thoughts (independent clauses) connected by a transitional word like "though," we need:

• Strong punctuation to separate the two complete thoughts
• That means a semicolon (or period)

The correct pattern here is:

• Complete thought, though; complete thought.
  • Comma before "though" sets it off as a transitional element
  • Semicolon after "though" provides the strong punctuation needed to separate the two independent clauses

So we need: conservation, though;

The correct answer is Choice C.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Punctuating Two Complete Thoughts with Transitional Words

When you need to connect two complete thoughts (independent clauses - called this in grammar terms) using a transitional word like "though," "however," "therefore," or "moreover," you need strong punctuation to separate them properly.

The pattern works like this:

Pattern: Complete thought, transitional word; complete thought.

Example 1:

• Complete thought: "The experiment produced surprising results"
• Transitional word: "however"
• Complete thought: "the team decided to run additional tests"
• Correct: "The experiment produced surprising results, however; the team decided to run additional tests."
• Comma before "however" sets it off
• Semicolon after "however" separates the two complete thoughts

Example 2:

• Complete thought: "Students studied diligently for the exam"
• Transitional word: "nevertheless"
• Complete thought: "many found the questions challenging"
• Correct: "Students studied diligently for the exam, nevertheless; many found the questions challenging."

In our question:

• Complete thought: "Economists have observed that improvements in efficiency often correlate negatively with resource conservation"
• Transitional word: "though"
• Complete thought: "efficiency gains, lowering the cost of use, may increase demand to the extent that resource consumption ultimately rises"
• Correct: Uses "conservation, though;" to properly punctuate with comma before and semicolon after

Why this matters: Each part could stand alone as its own sentence, so we need the semicolon to show where one complete idea ends and another begins. The comma sets off the transitional word to show it's creating a contrast or connection between the ideas.