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Difficulty: HardEliminating Wordiness

In 1938, museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer noticed a strange blue fish among a local trawler's catch. This fish was a coelacanth, which had been previously thought by scientists to have gone extinct and died out millions of years ago. Courtenay-Latimer contacted chemist J.L.B. Smith to identify the specimen, confirming the survival of a lineage dating back 400 million years.

Which choice best maintains the clear, concise style of the passage?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    This fish was a coelacanth, scientists had thought it went extinct millions of years ago.
  3. This fish was a coelacanth, thought by scientists to have gone extinct millions of years ago.Answer
  4. D
    This fish was a coelacanth. Which scientists had thought went extinct millions of years ago.

Answer

This fish was a coelacanth, thought by scientists to have gone extinct millions of years ago.
The correct option is the most concise and direct revision of the underlined portion. By using a participial modifier ('thought by scientists to have gone extinct millions of years ago'), it eliminates both the wordy relative clause and the redundant synonyms 'gone extinct' and 'died out' present in the original sentence.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the underlined portion for conciseness and redundancy.
The original phrasing contains redundant synonyms ('gone extinct' and 'died out') and relies on an overly wordy passive-voice structure ('which had been previously thought by').
ACT English requires eliminating repetitive words and preferring active, concise structures.
2
Evaluate the choices for grammatical correctness and clarity.
The option containing a comma splice and the option starting with 'Which' that creates a fragment are grammatically incorrect.
Revisions that fix wordiness must not introduce new sentence structure errors.
3
Select the option that is both grammatically correct and the most concise.
The phrasing that uses a past participial modifier ('thought by scientists...') is grammatically correct and removes all redundant language.
This option preserves the author's intended meaning while using the fewest words.

Key Concept

Eliminating Wordiness
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Topics

Eliminating Wordiness

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