Indian Institute of Foreign Trade 2017 Solved Paper

Choice (A)
Rules for using commas
Contrary to popular belief, commas don't just signify pauses in a sentence.
In fact, precise rules govern when to use this punctuation mark. When followed, they lay the groundwork for clear written communication.
● 1. Use a comma before any coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet) that links two independent clauses.
● Example: "I went running, and I saw a duck."
● If we were to eliminate the second "I" from that example, the second clause would lack a subject, making it not a clause at all. In that case, it would no longer need a comma: "I went running and saw a duck."
●Use a comma after a dependent clause that starts a sentence. Example: "When I went running, I saw a duck."
●Use commas to offset appositives from the rest of the sentence.
●Appositives act as synonyms for a juxtaposed word or phrase. For example, "While running, I saw a mallard, a kind of duck." "A kind of duck" is the appositive, which gives more information about "a mallard."
● If the appositive occurs in the middle of the sentence, both sides of the phrase need a comma. As in, "A mallard, a kind of duck, attacked me."
● Don't let the length of an appositive confuse you. As long as the phrase somehow gives more information about its predecessor, you usually need a comma.
● "A mallard, the kind of duck I saw when I went running, attacked me."
● Use commas to separate items in a series (Oxford comma). For example, "I saw a duck, a magician, and a liquor store when I went running."
● For example: The sentence, "We invited the cooks, JFK, and Stalin," means the speaker sent three separate invitations: one to some cooks, one to JFK, and one to Stalin. The version without the Oxford comma, however, takes on an entirely different meaning, potentially suggesting that only one invitation was sent - to two cooks named JFK and Stalin.● Use a comma after introductory adverbs.
● For Example: "Finally, I went running." "Unsurprisingly, I saw a duck when I went running."
●Adverbs that don't end in "ly," such as "when" or "while," usually introduce a dependent clause, is covered in rule number two.
●Also insert a comma when "however" starts a sentence, too. Phrases like "on the other hand" and "furthermore" also fall into this category.
●Use a comma when attributing quotes.
●The rule for where the comma goes, however, depends on where attribution comes.
●If attribution comes before the quote, place the comma outside the quotations marks. For Example: The runner said, "I saw a duck."
●If attribution comes after the quote, put the comma inside the quotation marks. "I saw a duck," said the runner.
●Use a comma to separate each element in an address. Also use a comma after a city-state combination within a sentence.
●For Example: "I work at 257 Park Ave. South, New York, N.Y., 10010." "Cleveland, Ohio, is a great city."
●Also use a comma to separate the elements in a full date (weekday, month and day, and year). Also separate a combination of those elements from the rest of the sentence with commas.
●For Example: " March 15, 2013, was a strange day."
●"Friday, March 15, 2013, was a strange day."
●"Friday, March 15, was a strange day."
● You don't need to add a comma when the sentence mentions only the month and year. For example: "March 2013 was a strange month." ● Use a comma when the first word of the sentence is "yes" or "no."
● "Yes, I saw a duck when I went running."
● "No, the duck didn't bite me."● Use a comma when directly addressingsomeone or something in a sentence. Forexample: My boss often asks, "Shirniwas, is thatarticle up yet?"
● Use a comma between two adjectives thatmodify the same noun. For example: "I saw thebig, mean duck when I went running."
● Only coordinate adjectives require a comma between them. Two adjectives are coordinate if you can answer yes to both these questions: 1. Does the sentence still make sense if you reverse the order of the words?
● 2. Does the sentence still make sense if you insert "and" between the words?
● Since "I saw the mean, big duck " and "I saw the big and mean duck" both sound fine, you need the comma.
● Sentences with non-coordinate adjectives, however ,don't require a comma. For example, "I lay under the powerful summer sun." "Powerful" describes "summer sun" as a whole phrase. This often occurs with adjunct nouns, a phrase where a noun acts as an adjective describing another noun - like "chicken soup" or "dance club."
● Use a comma to offset negation in a sentence.
●For example: "I saw a duck, not a baby seal, when I went running."
●Use commas before every sequence of three numbers when writing a number larger than 999. (Two exceptions are writing years and house numbers.) For example, 10,000 or 1,304,687.