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Difficulty: MediumEliminating Redundancy

To prevent the mechanical type-bars of early manual typewriters from jamming, Christopher Sholes designed the QWERTY layout to separate common letter pairs. By placing these frequently paired letters far apart from each other, Sholes successfully resolved the mechanical jamming issue.

Which choice is the most effective and concise way to write the underlined portion of the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. B
    Sholes placed these frequently paired letters far apart, he successfully resolved the jamming issue
  3. By placing these frequently paired letters far apart, Sholes resolved the jamming issueAnswer
  4. D
    By placing these frequently paired letters far apart, which resolved the jamming issue

Answer

The correct choice is the option that states: 'By placing these frequently paired letters far apart, Sholes resolved the jamming issue'.
The correct choice is the option starting with 'By placing these frequently paired letters far apart,' which is both grammatically correct and concise. It eliminates the redundant phrase 'from each other' because 'far apart' already establishes that the letters are separated, and it removes the repetitive words 'mechanical' and 'successfully' without changing the meaning of the passage.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify redundant phrasing in the underlined portion.
The phrase 'far apart from each other' repeats the concept of physical separation, and 'successfully resolved' is redundant since 'resolved' already implies success. Additionally, 'mechanical' repeats information from the first sentence.
ACT English requires eliminating wordiness and repetitive phrasing to ensure conciseness.
2
Evaluate the remaining options for grammatical correctness.
The option that starts with 'Sholes placed...' is a comma splice, and the option that ends with 'which resolved...' is a fragment, leaving only the correct option.
The correct choice must be both concise and grammatically correct.

Key Concept

Eliminating Redundancy
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Eliminating Redundancy

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