Archaeologists have shown that ingesting lead in drinking water was a

A) like that of modern Americans

"that" can refer to "lead" or "hazard" or or "ingesting lead"

"of" implies Americans possess either lead or hazard INCORRECT

(B) as that for modern Americans

"that" can refer to "lead" or "hazard" or "ingesting lead" INCORRECT

(C) just as modern Americans do

In previous clause "Romans" is used as object. In parallel comparison "Americans" is used as subject which doesn't match parallelism INCORRECT

(D) as do modern Americans

Making "Americans" subject after "as" doesn't sound correct for parallelism INCORRECT

(E) as it is for modern Americans

presents in simple tense and uses "as" to show comparison

Hence I chose option E
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I think E.
E- 'it' represents ingesting of lead.
The least complicated and the most precise option. Errors pointed out correctly by workout

+1 for E.

(A) like that of modern Americans

(B) as that for modern Americans

(C) just as modern Americans do

(D) as do modern Americans

(E) as it is for modern Americans --> Correct, Compares similar entities

Hence, E.
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+ 1 for E

Although confused between B and E

Archaeologists have shown that ingesting lead in drinking water was a significant health hazard for the ancient Romans, like that of modern Americans.


(A) like that of modern Americans

(B) as that for modern Americans

(C) just as modern Americans do

(D) as do modern Americans

(E) as it is for modern Americans --> correct comparison

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

Again we are presented with the need to choose the correct pronouns in order to allow for a parallel sentence structure. Here, the pronoun that tries to stand in for the entire phrase ingesting lead in drinking water was a significant health hazard, but it fails. That tries to do too much; a single pronoun can only refer to a noun, not a noun and a verb. A correct option needs a pronoun that refers back to the subject of the phrase ("ingesting lead") and a verb to recall was. Take out (A) and (B). You can eliminate (C) and (D) as well because do, like that in (A) and (B), doesn't refer accurately to the first part of the sentence; nobody was doing anything to begin with. (E) is right because it refers to ingesting lead and is refers to was a significant health hazard, creating a grammatically correct parallel.
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Adding a few more points, why C and E are wrong?

The verb in the first clause "was a significant health hazard" need to be parallel with a similar form of a verb in the second clause- a parallel verb for "to be" can never be "to do" so you can eliminate C and E

As vs Like tested here

Correct Answer must be (E)
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