Question

"Sylvia's heart gave a wild beat; she knew that strange white bird, and had once stolen softly near where it stood in some bright green swamp grass, away over at the other side of the woods."
After the stranger mentions the white heron Sylvia immediately knows of what bird he is speaking. What effect has the author created by joining her reactions with a semicolon instead of two separate sentences?

A. to emphasize the quickness of her thoughts and feelings
B. to demonstrate her love of nature
C. to show how confused she is about what the stranger is asking
D. to cause the reader to wonder what her reaction will be

Answer 1

The correct answer to what effect has the author created by joining her reactions with a semicolon instead of two separate sentences is A. to emphasize the quickness of her thoughts and feelings.

The semicolon usually indicates only a pause, instead of a break, like an effect usually caused by a period, that indicates the end of a sentence. The pause created by the semicolon shows that there is a connection between what was said before it and after it. In this case, Sylvia's reaction, her heart's wild beat, is directly connected to her thoughts that came right after it. Therefore, her thoughts come very fast right after her heartbeat, and that effect is caused by the use of the semicolon, that creates only a small pause. Thus, the effect that the author has created by joining her reactions with a semicolon was A. to emphasize the quickness of her thoughts and feelings.

The correct answer couldn't be B. to demonstrate her love of nature, because there is no indication of her love of nature in this passage, only of her feelings and thoughts as she observed the heron mentioned. Thus, the correct answer couldn't be B. to demonstrate her love of nature.

The correct answer couldn't be C. to show how confused she is about what the stranger is asking because there was no sign of Sylvia being confused, on the contrary, she had a fast emotional response to the stranger's question and the semicolon reveals her feelings and thoughts altogether. Hence, the correct answer couldn't be C. to show how confused she is about what the stranger is asking.

The correct answer couldn't be D. to cause the reader to wonder what her reaction will be because her reaction is expressed in this passage, as the author describes her feelings and thoughts. The reader doesn't have to wonder but has her reactions there explicit. So, the correct answer couldn't be D. to cause the reader to wonder what her reaction will be.