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Difficulty: Very hardEliminating Redundancy

Linguists tracking the evolution of Indo-European languages have noted that sound shifts occur in highly predictable patterns; by studying these systematic changes, which proceed in an orderly fashion, researchers can reconstruct Proto-Indo-European, the ancestral tongue from which modern languages descended.

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

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. by studying these systematic changes, researchersAnswer
  3. C
    because by studying these systematic changes, researchers
  4. D
    researchers study these systematic changes, they

Answer

The correct option is the one that reads 'by studying these systematic changes, researchers'. This choice is the most concise because it removes the redundant clause 'which proceed in an orderly fashion' (since 'systematic' already implies order) and maintains grammatical correctness.
The correct option is the most concise choice that is grammatically correct. It removes the redundant clause 'which proceed in an orderly fashion' because 'systematic' already describes something that is orderly and methodical. The resulting sentence flows logically and maintains proper punctuation.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the redundancy in the original underlined phrase.
The word 'systematic' and the relative clause 'which proceed in an orderly fashion' express the exact same concept.
Redundancy must be eliminated to make the sentence concise and direct.
2
Evaluate the options for conciseness and clarity.
Removing 'which proceed in an orderly fashion' yields 'by studying these systematic changes, researchers', which successfully eliminates the redundancy.
The most concise option that preserves meaning is correct, provided it does not introduce grammatical errors.
3
Verify the grammatical correctness of the remaining options.
The option beginning with 'because' creates a sentence fragment after the semicolon, and the option with 'they' creates a comma splice between two independent clauses. The concise option maintains proper sentence structure.
An option must be grammatically correct to be the final answer.

Key Concept

Eliminating Redundancy
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Topics

Eliminating Redundancy

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