In the sentence about the Black Death, which fragment correctly follows to connect the ideas? '... abandon each other, evenPress Space to openother; while evenother evenother, and even priests refused to visit the sick to hear last confessions.'

In the sentence about the Black Death, which fragment correctly follows to connect the ideas? '... abandon each other, evenPress Space to openother; while evenother evenother, and even priests refused to visit the sick to hear last confessions.'

• A. other, and even
• B. other, even
• C. other; and even
• D. other and even

Answer: (A)

The word that matters here is how to join parallel ideas smoothly and show that the second idea extends the first with emphasis. After “abandon each other,” you want to add another surprising element using a coordinating conjunction. Using a comma before “and” and pairing it with “even” creates a natural, emphatic link to the next idea: “abandon each other, and even priests refused to visit the sick to hear last confessions.” The comma signals the addition, and “and even” emphasizes that this extends to priests as well. Other options break the flow: they either omit the conjunction, misuse punctuation, or leave the sentence feeling incomplete.

The word that matters here is how to join parallel ideas smoothly and show that the second idea extends the first with emphasis. After “abandon each other,” you want to add another surprising element using a coordinating conjunction. Using a comma before “and” and pairing it with “even” creates a natural, emphatic link to the next idea: “abandon each other, and even priests refused to visit the sick to hear last confessions.” The comma signals the addition, and “and even” emphasizes that this extends to priests as well.

Other options break the flow: they either omit the conjunction, misuse punctuation, or leave the sentence feeling incomplete.