Question

The following answer choices contain a paragraph from a John Muir article. Read each answer choice and select the one that uses semicolons correctly.
Now is the birth-time of leaves, the pines are retassled, and the oaks are sprayed with young purple. Spring is fully committed. Ferns are a foot high; and willows are letting fly drifts of ripe seeds. Balm of Gilead poplars, after weeks of caution; have launched their buds full of red and leaves of tender glossy yellow. Cherries, honeysuckles, violets, bluets; buttercups, larkspurs, and gilias are full of bloom of leaf and flower. Plant-odor fills the valley in light floating clouds and mists, it covers the ground and trees and every nook and cranny of the valley.
Now is the birth-time of leaves; the pines are retassled, and the oaks are sprayed with young purple. Spring is fully committed. Ferns are a foot high, and; willows are letting fly drifts of ripe seeds. Balm of Gilead poplars, after weeks of caution, have launched their buds full of red; and leaves of tender glossy yellow. Cherries, honeysuckles, violets, bluets, buttercups, larkspurs, and gilias are full of bloom of leaf and flower. Plant-odor fills the valley in light floating clouds and mists; it covers the ground and trees and every nook and cranny of the valley.
Now is the birth-time of leaves, the pines are retassled; and the oaks are sprayed with young purple. Spring is fully committed. Ferns are a foot high, and willows are letting fly drifts of ripe seeds. Balm of Gilead poplars, after weeks of caution; have launched their buds full of red and leaves of tender glossy yellow. Cherries, honeysuckles, violets, bluets, buttercups, larkspurs; and gilias are full of bloom of leaf and flower. Plant-odor fills the valley in light floating clouds and mists, it covers the ground and trees and every nook and cranny of the valley.
Now is the birth-time of leaves; the pines are retassled, and the oaks are sprayed with young purple. Spring is fully committed. Ferns are a foot high, and willows are letting fly drifts of ripe seeds. Balm of Gilead poplars, after weeks of caution, have launched their buds full of red and leaves of tender glossy yellow. Cherries, honeysuckles, violets, bluets, buttercups, larkspurs, and gilias are full of bloom of leaf and flower. Plant-odor fills the valley in light floating clouds and mists; it covers the ground and trees and every nook and cranny of the valley.

Answer 1

Answer:

D.

Explanation:

The last answer choice uses semicolons correctly.

"Now is the birth-time of leaves; the pines are retassled, and the oaks are sprayed with young purple. Spring is fully committed. Ferns are a foot high, and willows are letting fly drifts of ripe seeds. Balm of Gilead poplars, after weeks of caution, have launched their buds full of red and leaves of tender glossy yellow. Cherries, honeysuckles, violets, bluets, buttercups, larkspurs, and gilias are full of bloom of leaf and flower. Plant-odor fills the valley in light floating clouds and mists; it covers the ground and trees and every nook and cranny of the valley."

The semicolon in the first sentence (Now is the birth-time of leaves; the pines are retassled...) separates two independent clauses that have no coordinating conjunctions between them, and so does the semicolon in the last sentence of the paragraph (Plant-odor fills the valley in light floating clouds and mists; it covers the ground...).