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Difficulty: HardEliminating Redundancy

Geothermal geysers, such as Yellowstone's Old Faithful, erupt on highly predictable schedules due to the buildup of underground pressure. The geothermal water, which is heated to a high temperature by hot magma beneath the Earth's surface, boils and eventually forces its way upward.

Which of the following options represents the most effective and grammatically correct replacement for the underlined portion?

  1. A
    which is heated to a high temperature by hot magma beneath the Earth's surface, boils and
  2. heated by magma beneath the Earth's surface, boils andAnswer
  3. C
    heated by magma beneath the Earth's surface, boils, it
  4. D
    heated by magma beneath the Earth's surface, which boils and

Answer

heated by magma beneath the Earth's surface, boils and
The correct option is the most concise and grammatically sound choice. The phrase 'heated by magma' communicates the temperature changes clearly without the wordy addition of 'which is heated to a high temperature' and the redundant adjective 'hot' before 'magma,' since magma is inherently hot. It maintains the proper sentence structure by providing the active verbs 'boils' and 'forces' for the subject 'geothermal water.'

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the redundancy in the underlined portion.
The phrase 'heated to a high temperature' and the adjective 'hot' before 'magma' are redundant, as magma is by definition extremely hot.
ACT English requires the most concise version that preserves the meaning.
2
Eliminate options that fail to correct the redundancy or introduce grammatical errors.
Removing the redundant words leaves 'heated by magma beneath the Earth's surface, boils and'. Check this against options containing punctuation errors or run-ons.
Distractors often try to fix one error while introducing a new grammatical issue.
3
Verify sentence structure with the remaining option.
Inserting the concise option creates a grammatically complete sentence where 'heated by magma beneath the Earth's surface' is a modifying phrase, and 'boils and eventually forces' serves as the compound predicate for 'The geothermal water'.
Ensures the choice maintains complete sentence structure without creating fragments or comma splices.

Key Concept

Eliminating Redundancy
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Topics

Eliminating Redundancy

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