Question

Joan asked the town councilman to re-sign the letter of petition after she made necessary changes to the original.

Why does re-sign contain a hyphen in this sentence?
A) to explain why the petition was being signed
B) to draw attention to the subject of the sentence
Eliminate
C) to emphasize that the original petition was edited
D) to avoid confusion between re-sign and resign

Answer 1

D) to avoid confusion between re-sign and resign

Answer 2

Re-sign contains a hyphen in this sentence D) to avoid confusion between re-sign and resign.

Step-by-step explanation:

If we take into consideration the context provided by this sentence, we can easily understand that the meaning of the word "re-sign" is "to write on a printed document so as to show the councilman agrees with the content" or, simply, "to sign again." However, if the hyphen happens to be removed, the word "resign" would imply a retirement, resignation or giving up on that matter. Therefore, the hyphen is used to avoid this confusion and make sure the reader understand the document has to be signed again after the necessary changes.