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Difficulty: HardEliminating Wordiness

In the summer of 1967, postgraduate student Jocelyn Bell Burnell was analyzing data from a newly constructed radio telescope. She noticed a faint, repeating signal in the charts that pulsed with astonishing regularity. Due to the fact that the signals recurred at such highly periodic intervals of time, some astronomers initially wondered if they had detected a transmission from an extraterrestrial civilization.

Which option is the most effective choice for the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. Because the signals recurred periodically,Answer
  3. C
    With the signals being characterized by their recurrence at periodic intervals of time,
  4. D
    The signals recurred periodically,

Answer

Because the signals recurred periodically,
The correct choice is the most concise option. It correctly uses the subordinating conjunction 'Because' to link the cause to the main clause, and it avoids the redundancy of 'intervals of time' by using the adverb 'periodically.'

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify wordiness and redundancy in the underlined portion.
The phrase 'Due to the fact that' is a wordy equivalent of 'Because,' and 'periodic intervals of time' is redundant because 'periodic' already means occurring at intervals of time.
ACT English questions require eliminating redundant and wordy phrasings.
2
Evaluate the options for conciseness and check for grammatical errors.
The option beginning with 'Because' is concise and grammatically correct. The option beginning with 'The signals' removes wordiness but joins two independent clauses with only a comma, resulting in a comma splice.
Eliminating wordiness must not introduce grammatical errors.

Key Concept

Eliminating Wordiness
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Topics

Eliminating Wordiness

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