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Difficulty: MediumEliminating Redundancy

Deep within the ocean, hydrothermal vents support unique ecosystems that thrive without sunlight. Currently, these specialized communities are at this present time dependent on chemical synthesis rather than photosynthesis.

Which of the following options is the best version of the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. A
    Currently, these specialized communities are at this present time dependent
  2. These specialized communities dependAnswer
  3. C
    Because these specialized communities depend
  4. D
    These specialized communities depend, they rely

Answer

These specialized communities depend
The correct option is the most concise and direct way to express the sentence's meaning. By replacing 'Currently, these specialized communities are at this present time dependent' with 'These specialized communities depend', it successfully eliminates the redundant temporal references ('currently' and 'at this present time') and uses a strong, active verb ('depend') to connect the subject to the prepositional phrase.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the redundancy in the underlined portion of the original sentence.
The words 'Currently' and the phrase 'at this present time' both convey the same meaning, making them redundant when used together.
ACT English questions require eliminating unnecessary words that repeat the same information.
2
Evaluate the remaining options for conciseness and grammatical correctness.
The option starting with 'Because' creates a dependent clause fragment. The option with 'they rely' creates a comma splice. The option 'These specialized communities depend' is both grammatically correct and concise.
The correct answer must be free of redundancy, punctuation errors, and sentence structure issues.

Key Concept

Eliminating Redundancy
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Topics

Eliminating Redundancy

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