Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumEliminating Wordiness

During nocturnal hikes in the damp forests of southern Brazil, travelers often witness a glowing green light emanating from the forest floor. This eerie glow is produced by *Neonothopanus gardneri*, a species of bioluminescent mushroom. The reason why these mushrooms glow in the dark is due to the fact that they contain a chemical compound called luciferin, which reacts with oxygen to attract spore-spreading insects.

Which choice is the most concise and grammatically correct version of the underlined portion?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. These mushrooms glow because they containAnswer
  3. C
    These mushrooms, glowing because they contain,
  4. D
    These mushrooms glow, because, they contain

Answer

These mushrooms glow because they contain
The correct option, 'These mushrooms glow because they contain,' is the most direct and concise way to state the cause of the glowing. It avoids the wordiness and redundancies of the original sentence while maintaining proper grammatical structure.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify wordy or redundant expressions in the underlined segment.
The original text contains 'The reason why', 'is due to', and 'the fact that', which are all different ways of stating the same causal relationship.
Recognizing redundancy allows you to eliminate extra words that do not add unique meaning to the sentence.
2
Evaluate the alternatives for grammatical correctness and conciseness.
The option stating 'These mushrooms glow because they contain' uses a single conjunction ('because') to establish the cause clearly and maintains a complete independent clause.
The correct answer must be both grammatically sound and free of wordiness.

Key Concept

Eliminating Wordiness
Rate this question

Topics

Eliminating Wordiness

More questions from this topic