For nearly nine years, Swedish runner Gunder Hägg held the world record for the mile, a record that stood at 4:01.4 until it was broken in 1954 by an English medical _____ who ran the first sub-four-minute mile.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Explanation
Context: The sentence identifies the runner who broke Hägg's mile record, and the blank must punctuate the name that follows the description "an English medical student."
Answer: D) student, Roger Bannister,
Why? "Roger Bannister" is a nonessential appositive: the description plus the "who ran the first sub-four-minute mile" clause already pins down who is meant, so the name supplies extra identification rather than narrowing the noun. A nonessential appositive takes a comma on each side, and removing it leaves the sentence complete and grammatical.
Traps:
- A) student, Roger Bannister → opens the interruption with a comma but never closes it before the "who" clause.
- B) student Roger Bannister → uses no punctuation at all, treating the name as needed to specify which student.
- C) student Roger Bannister, → closes an interruption that was never opened, leaving an unpaired comma.