Crafting Vocabulary and Sentence Variety: Question 4

Worked solution

Assessment focus

This tests whether a candidate can correctly apply the grammatical definitions of sentence types (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex) by identifying how many clauses a sentence contains, and whether each clause is independent or dependent.

Why C is correct

The sentence contains exactly two clauses: “Although the rain had stopped” (a dependent/subordinate clause, introduced by the subordinating conjunction “although,” which cannot stand alone as a full sentence) and “the streets remained slick and dangerous” (one independent clause, which could stand alone). One independent clause plus one dependent clause is, by definition, a complex sentence.

Why the distractors are wrong

• A (simple) is wrong because a simple sentence contains only one clause and no subordinate clause; this sentence has two clauses.
• B (compound) is wrong because a compound sentence needs at least two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (e.g. “and,” “but,” “so”) or a semicolon; here, the first clause cannot stand alone, so it is dependent, not independent.
• D (compound-complex) is wrong because that sentence type requires at least two independent clauses AND at least one dependent clause; this sentence has only one independent clause.

Mark scheme

• 1 mark for selecting C.
• 0 marks for any other option. No partial credit, since this is a discrete single-answer selection question.