(1) I participated in a summer reading program when I was a kid. (2) It motivated me to read more. (3) There would be prizes for reading a lot of books. (4) It helped to participate with friends. (5) We would encourage each other to read. (6) Reading was a fun thing to do with my friends. (7) We still read together. (8) We are in high school now. (9) The summer reading program helped me developed a habit of reading. (10) I encourage libraries to continue summer reading programs. Which of the following revisions to sentences 4-5 best improves the sentence variety while using correct grammar and punctuation?
Select one:

It helped to participate with friends: we would encourage each other to read

It helped to participate with friends because we would encourage each other to read.

We would encourage each other to read, it helped to participate with friends.

Participating with friends, the summer reading program, helped: we would encourage each other to read.

the sun warms our planet, and with the moon, creates the tides. the moon orbits the earth and in turn, the earth orbits the sun. because they appear to be the same size in the sky, the sun, earth and moon work together to create eclipses. when the moon is directly in between the earth and sun

explanation:

the intellectual community is a place like a university where people with high marks, or original thought or an outstanding interest in something gather. they take classes together. they discuss things. they argue sometimes, and not always in a friendly way. but if they argue, it is because they are passionate about something, and there is nothing the matter with that.

lately i've been hearing rumors that it is not the way it was when i went to school. the one thing all schools used to have was free speech. the 1st amendment rights were sacred. now i'm hearing they are not. students can be reported and disciplined for giving an off the wall opinion.

that is shameful.

intellectual ideas are meant to be discussed. they are meant to be chewed up and worked on. that is the primary responsibility of every intellectual community. if that is not the way it is, then that is not a school to go to.

social media, in my opinion, and this is just an opinion. i wouldn't take it too seriously, complicates everything to do with human communication. you can want to share things and others feel they have the right to be very critical or sarcastic or mean about what you share. lack of respect is an immeasurable intolerable condition and social media abounds with that sort of thing.

one of the things i really like about is how careful people are because they must have some idea that the mods are exactly what the word says they are. they police this board very well, and what is so remarkable about them is that they are no older than the average grade 12 student.

my hat goes off to them (which means i respect them quite a bit).