hard · Enhanced ACT english
The conductor, who had rehearsed the ensemble for months, insisted that the cellists—the section he trusted least—play the passage twice.
The writer wants the punctuation around "the section he trusted least" to mark a parenthetical aside without weakening the sentence's higher-level structure. Given that the sentence already uses paired commas to set off the relative clause "who had rehearsed the ensemble for months," which choice of punctuation around the aside is best, and why?
- Commas, because an appositive renaming a noun is conventionally framed by commas no matter what other punctuation appears in the sentence.
- Dashes, because they establish a stronger level of separation that keeps the aside from visually colliding with the earlier comma-set relative clause.
- Parentheses, because an incidental aside should always be marked with the punctuation that signals the lowest level of importance.
- Commas, because the aside is short enough that dashes would overstate the interruption and disrupt the sentence's even tone.
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