Errors in the use of punctuation marks - Use of Quotation Marks and Terminal Punctuation
the answer is d.
A.In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," T.S. Eliot laments the absence of passion in modern life.
B."As long as you are living under my roof," said Mrs. Fernandez, "you will make your bed every morning and arrive home before midnight."
C.Have you ever seen Edward Lear's own illustrations for "The Owl and the cat"?
D.Two generations now have puzzled over the meaning of "Ruby Tuesday's" lyrics.
Correct.
To determine which sentence contains an error in the use of quotation marks and terminal punctuation, we need to understand the correct usage of these punctuation marks.
Quotation marks are used to indicate direct speech or to enclose a direct quotation. In American English, the general rule is to place punctuation marks, such as commas and periods, inside the closing quotation mark. However, there are exceptions when the punctuation is not part of the quoted text.
Terminal punctuation refers to the punctuation marks used at the end of a sentence, such as periods, question marks, and exclamation marks.
Let's examine each sentence to find the error:
A. "In 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,'" T.S. Eliot laments the absence of passion in modern life.
This sentence correctly places the comma, which is not part of the quoted text, outside the closing quotation mark. The period at the end is also correct.
B. "As long as you are living under my roof," said Mrs. Fernandez, "you will make your bed every morning and arrive homebefore midnight."
In this sentence, the quotation marks are used correctly. However, there is a mistake in the terminal punctuation. Instead of placing a period at the end, it should be a comma to indicate a continuation of the sentence after the spoken words.
C. Have you ever seen Edward Lear's own illustrations for "The Owl and the cat?"
This sentence correctly uses the question mark as the terminal punctuation. The quotation marks are also correctly used.
D. Two generations now have puzzled over the meaning of "Ruby Tuesday's" lyrics.
This sentence has the correct usage of quotation marks and terminal punctuation.
From the analysis above, we can see that the sentence containing an error is B. It should be: "As long as you are living under my roof," said Mrs. Fernandez, "you will make your bed every morning and arrive home before midnight," with a comma instead of a period after "midnight."