Question

baseball vs. softball the grammatical errors in this passage are intentional. (1) baseball america’s pastime. (2) softball–a faster - paced version of america’s pastime. (3) while baseball and softball have many similarities, they are also very different. (4) for starters, baseball is played with a smaller ball than softball. (5) a typical sized baseball is 9 to 9.25 inches. (6) a softball measures 12 inches. (7) another obvious difference is the way the ball is pitched in each sport. (8) pitchers in baseball throw overhand while pitchers in softball pitch underhand. (9) the size of the baseball diamond runs 90 feet by 90 feet. (10) with a 60 feet 6 inch long pitching distance. (11) a softball diamond is a little smaller as it runs 60 feet by 60 feet with a 43 foot pitching distance from home plate. (12) this results in softball players needing a quicker reaction time than baseball players–especially when hitting at the plate. (13) due to the closeness of the mound in softball, hitters must have quicker hands to get around on the ball being pitched. what change should be made in sentence 1? a baseball–america’s pastime. b baseball; america’s pastime c baseball is not america’s pastime. d baseball–not america’s pastime.

Explanation:

To determine the correct change for sentence 1 ("Baseball America’s pastime"), we need to use the correct punctuation to show possession. "America’s pastime" is a noun phrase, and we need to connect "Baseball" to it with an en dash or a hyphen to show the relationship, but the correct structure for showing that baseball is America’s pastime is to use an en dash (or a hyphen) with proper spacing? Wait, no—actually, the correct way is to use an en dash or to format it as "Baseball—America’s pastime" (with an em dash) to show the appositive relationship. Looking at the options, option A is "Baseball—America’s pastime" which uses an em dash to correctly connect the two parts, showing that baseball is America’s pastime. The original sentence is missing the dash, so adding the em dash (or the correct punctuation) as in option A makes the sentence grammatically correct.

Answer:

A. Baseball—America’s pastime