A student is quoting from a science article but wants to omit some extra descriptive words in the middle of a sentence.
Original passage:
"The researchers recorded temperature changes every minute during the storm and compared them to data from earlier summers. They found that the lake warmed rapidly near the surface, especially during calm, sunny hours, and then cooled after strong winds returned. The report notes that these shifts can affect fish habitats and algae growth."
Which quotation correctly uses an ellipsis to omit the words "especially during calm, sunny hours" while preserving the meaning?
- "They found that the lake warmed rapidly near the surface, ... and then cooled after strong winds returned." (correct answer)
- "They found that the lake warmed rapidly near the surface, and then cooled ... after strong winds returned."
- "They found that the lake warmed rapidly near the surface.. and then cooled after strong winds returned."
- "They found that the lake warmed rapidly ... and then cooled after strong winds returned."
Explanation: The article says the lake "warmed rapidly near the surface, especially during calm, sunny hours, and then cooled after strong winds returned." You want to drop only the middle phrase "especially during calm, sunny hours." The correct choice places a three-dot ellipsis exactly where that phrase was removed, keeping the comma and the surrounding words intact, so the meaning stays the same. One distractor puts the ellipsis after "cooled" instead, which signals that words were dropped from a different spot and misrepresents where the omission happened. Another uses only two dots instead of the required three, which is not a proper ellipsis. The last choice places the ellipsis correctly in the middle but also cuts "near the surface," so it removes more than the phrase named in the question and changes the detail being quoted. Only the first choice omits the exact middle phrase and nothing else, using a properly spaced three-dot ellipsis.