Examkin

Question

Difficulty: EasyEliminating Wordiness

Although fireflies are best known for their glowing lanterns, not all species of these insects can actually produce light. Because of the reason that some species lack the chemical organs that are needed to glow, they rely on chemical scents called pheromones to find mates.

Which of the following is the best revision of the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. Because some species lack the chemical organs needed to glow,Answer
  3. C
    Because some species lack the chemical organs, that are needed to glow,
  4. D
    Some species lack the chemical organs needed to glow,

Answer

Because some species lack the chemical organs needed to glow,
The correct answer is the most concise and direct phrasing that maintains grammatical correctness. Replacing the wordy transition 'Because of the reason that' with 'Because' and simplifying the modifier 'that are needed to glow' to 'needed to glow' eliminates unnecessary wordiness without introducing any grammatical errors.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the wordiness and redundancies in the original sentence.
The phrase 'Because of the reason that' is wordy and redundant, as it can be simplified to just 'Because.' Similarly, the relative clause 'that are needed to glow' is wordier than necessary and can be reduced to the participial phrase 'needed to glow.'
ACT English questions prioritize clear, concise, and direct communication.
2
Evaluate the grammar of the concise options to ensure they do not introduce errors.
Removing the subordinating conjunction creates a comma splice by joining two independent clauses with only a comma. Adding a comma before 'that are needed to glow' creates a punctuation error because 'that' clauses are restrictive and should not be set off by commas. The version containing 'Because' and 'needed to glow' remains grammatically correct.
The correct option must be both concise and grammatically correct.

Key Concept

Eliminating Wordiness
Rate this question

Topics

Eliminating Wordiness

More questions from this topic