High School

Read the sentence:

"Jack said there was a dog that was a high flying, nineteenth century trapeze artist; his claim is intriguing, yet highly unlikely."

What is the correct way to use hyphens in this sentence?

1. Jack said there was a dog that was a high-flying, nineteenth century trapeze artist; his claim is intriguing, yet highly-unlikely.

2. Jack said there was a dog that was a high-flying, nineteenth-century trapeze artist; his claim is intriguing, yet highly unlikely.

3. Jack said there was a dog that was a high flying, nineteenth-century-trapeze artist; his claim is intriguing, yet highly-unlikely.

4. Jack said there was a dog that was a high flying, nineteenth century-trapeze artist; his claim is intriguing, yet highly unlikely.

Answer :

Final answer:

The correct answer is Option 2, which hyphenates 'high-flying' and 'nineteenth-century' accurately. Using hyphens properly helps ensure clarity in the description. Hyphenated compound adjectives are crucial for proper grammatical structure.


Explanation:

Correct Use of Hyphens in the Sentence

The sentence provided requires correct hyphenation to enhance clarity. According to standard English grammar rules, compound adjectives—like 'high-flying'—should be hyphenated when they come before a noun. Additionally, when using a compound adjective in relation to numeric phrases—like 'nineteenth-century'—the elements should also be hyphenated.

From the options given:

  1. Option 1 incorrectly hyphenates 'high-flying' and 'highly-unlikely'.
  2. Option 2 is correct as it properly hyphenates both 'high-flying' and 'nineteenth-century'.
  3. Option 3 incorrectly separates 'high flying' and includes a hyphen in 'highly-unlikely', which is not necessary.
  4. Option 4 separates 'high flying' and mis-hyphenates 'nineteenth-century-trapeze'.

Therefore, the correct way to write the sentence is:

Jack said there was a dog that was a high-flying, nineteenth-century trapeze artist; his claim is intriguing, yet highly unlikely.

Learn more about hyphenation here:

https://brainly.com/question/50166714