Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumEliminating Wordiness

Consider the following passage:

In 1948, a graduate student overheard a supermarket executive asking a university dean to develop a system that could automatically capture product information at checkout. Inspired by this conversation, Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver set to work on a solution. Woodland eventually created the first barcode by drawing lines in the sand on a Miami beach, extending the dots and dashes of Morse code into vertical shapes. It was in the year 1974 that the very first commercial scan of this new barcode system was finally performed and carried out on a pack of chewing gum in Ohio.

Which choice best minimizes wordiness while maintaining the meaning and grammatical correctness of the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. In 1974, the first commercial scan of a barcode was performedAnswer
  3. C
    In 1974, when the first commercial scan of a barcode was performed
  4. D
    In 1974, the first commercial scan of a barcode was performed, this scan occurred

Answer

The correct option is the one stating 'In 1974, the first commercial scan of a barcode was performed' because it removes all redundant descriptors and passive wordiness without introducing grammatical errors.
The correct option is 'In 1974, the first commercial scan of a barcode was performed' because it is direct, grammatically complete, and removes the redundant and wordy phrasing of the original passage.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Read the sentence and identify instances of wordiness or redundant phrasing.
The original underlined segment contains several redundant phrases: 'in the year' is redundant with '1974', 'very first' is repetitive, and 'performed and carried out' uses synonyms that express the exact same action. The construction 'It was... that...' also adds unnecessary wordiness.
ACT English questions require identifying and eliminating unnecessary words to improve sentence flow and clarity.
2
Evaluate the choices to find the most concise and grammatically correct option.
The option beginning with 'In 1974, the first commercial scan' removes all redundant modifiers and phrases. The option ending with 'was performed' is a fragment because the word 'when' makes the clause dependent. The option ending with 'this scan occurred' incorrectly links two independent clauses with a comma, causing a comma splice.
To ensure the chosen answer does not introduce a new grammatical error while resolving the wordiness.

Key Concept

Eliminating redundant synonyms and wordy phrasing to create a concise, grammatically sound sentence.
Rate this question

Topics

Eliminating Wordiness

More questions from this topic