The correct answer is B. Alfred I ruled England for nearly 20 years, from A.D. 871 to 899
Explanation:
Combining two sentences is about linking two sentences appropriately or creating a new longer sentence with the information provided in the original sentences. For doing this, there are multiple strategies that include shortening the second sentences and using conjunctions to link the two sentences such as the words and, but, yet, or, for; using a semicolon to link both sentences without modifying the information; linking both sentences by linking words such as therefore, however or although or creating a new sentence by taking the key information of the two sentences.
Considering this, if you need to combine sentence (1) "Alfred I ruled England for nearly 20 years" and sentence (2) "He ruled from A.D. 871 to 899" the best option is to omit the information that is not necessary and use a conjunction or linking word to join both sections of the sentence as this leads to a clearer and shorter sentence. This means "he ruled" can be omitted and the two sentences can be linked by using the conjunction "from" the second sentence provides. Thus, the most effective to combine sentence 1 and 2 would be "Alfred I ruled England for nearly 20 years, from A.D. 871 to 899" as in this option the two sentences are linked by a conjunction, which is recommended and only the key information is kept, which makes this option the more concise and clear one.
