Final answer:
An independent clause contains a subject and a verb, expresses a complete thought, and can stand alone as a complete sentence. Therefore, the correct answer is d) All of the above. It forms the core of simple sentences and can be combined with other clauses to create more complex sentence structures.
Step-by-step explanation:
An independent clause is a group of words that not only contains a subject and a verb but also expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a complete sentence. For example, 'Hand me that socket wrench.' is an independent clause. In contrast, a dependent clause contains both a subject and a verb, but it cannot stand alone as a complete thought and often depends on the independent clause to make sense, as in 'If you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both.', where the first part is a dependent clause.
Therefore, when picking the answers that correctly describe an independent clause, the correct choices are: a) Contains a subject and a verb, b) Can stand alone as a complete sentence, and c) Expresses a complete thought, which leads to d) All of the above being the right selection. An independent clause is essentially the backbone of a simple sentence, and multiple independent clauses can be joined together with conjunctions to form complex structures, such as compound or compound-complex sentences.