Which of the following sentences uses parentheses correctly? a. the anasazi left their cliff dwellings (possibly because of drought), and disappeared before europeans arrived. b. the anasazi left their cliff dwellings (possibly because of drought) and disappeared before europeans arrived. c. the anasazi left their cliff dwellings, (possibly because of drought), and disappeared before europeans arrived. d. the anasazi left their cliff dwellingslong dashpossibly because of droughtlong dashand disappeared before europeans arrived

The correct answer is B. The Anasazi left their cliff dwellings (possibly because of drought) and disappeared before Europeans arrived.

Explanation:

Parentheses () are common punctuation marks used to introduce information such as examples, comments, remarks or explanations. Besides this, punctuation marks such as commas should never be placed before the parentheses and they can only be placed after it in case the sentence requires it, which commonly occurs when there is a dependent and independent clause.

This means, in the case presented the correct sentence is "The Anasazi left their cliff dwellings (possibly because of drought) and disappeared before Europeans arrived" because this does not include commas before or after the parentheses which is correct because a comma should never be included before the parentheses and in this case, it is not necessary to add a comma after the parentheses because "and disappeared before Europeans arrived" is part of the predicate in the sentence.