SAT Question cdbbbf94: Boundaries answer and explanation

English - Boundaries - No Punctuation Within Clause
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As British scientist Peter Whibberley has observed, “the Earth is not a very good timekeeper.” Earth’s slightly irregular rotation rate means that measurements of time must be periodically adjusted. Specifically, an extra “leap second” (the 86,401st second of the day) is ______ time based on the planet’s rotation lags a full nine-tenths of a second behind time kept by precise atomic clocks.
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Difficulty:Medium
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?