Which transitional word is the best choice? the desk was covered with books, the rug was littered with games, and the bed was covered with clothes; sam claimed that his room was not messy. a) therefore b) however c) while d) finally

The desk was covered with books, the rug was littered with games, and the bed was covered with clothes; however, Sam claimed that his room was not messy.

Explanation:

Transitional words are used to link ideas in a sentence, paragraph, or a text. As the name suggests, they help the speaker/author transition from one idea to another smoothly, even if the ideas are different or opposite.

In the sentence we are studying here, the writer describes a room that is clearly messy to most people's standards. Books, games, and books are carelessly tossed all around. It would be only natural for Sam to agree that the room is far from being neat. However, he does not. We need "however" to make this transition because it connects opposing ideas. The other options, "therefore", "while", and "finally" would not convey this discrepancy between Sam's opinion and reality.

faulty parallelism is a construction in which two or more parts of a sentence are equivalent in meaning but not grammatically similar in form.

the correct version of this faulty parallelism in the sentence is:

the hikers knew that the hike was six miles, that it usually required the entire day, and it would not be wise to start after 10: 00 a.m.

the problem is the last sentence, the first two have a basic subject+verb+object structure.

so, to give a proper balance to the structure, or better said, to give a parallel structure, we must write a basic s+v+o structure in all three sentences:

the hikers knew that the hike was six miles, that it usually required the entire day, and it would not be wise to start after 10: 00 a.m.

onto a large boat, and mark the water level that the boat sinks to. then, take the elephant out and put a bunch of marked weights onto the boat until it reaches the same water level. add up the masses of the weights to get the weight of the elephant.