In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the
Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for
cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by
tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so
that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus
was growing on the walls.
(A) due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which
raised its humidity to such levels so that salt
from the stone was crystallizing
(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled,
thereby raising its humidity to such levels that
salt from the stone would crystallize
(C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which
had raised the humidity within them to levels
such that salt from the stone would crystallize
(D) because of moisture that was exhaled by
tourists raising the humidity within them to levels
so high as to make the salt from the stone
crystallize
(E) because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised
the humidity within them to such levels that salt
from the stone was crystallizing

OA is

my question is :


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A, B and D are out for "due to" and "because of". Both are GMAT unfavorables.
C and E are close. The obvious problem with C is that it has passive construction. C is also not parallel to the last part of the sentence.

Why "them" refers to "chambers' not "tourists" is a matter of logical reasoning. If "them" does not refers to "chambers" but tourist, it makes the sentence so illogical that the meaning would be tourists exhaled moisture within themselves (tourist) not in the chambers and this act raises the humidity within the tourists. In that case, the meaning of the sentence becomes completely illogical.

So E is best...
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Thanks GMATTiger, this is another way to see why them is not referring to tourists in E, +1 Kudos to u too
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I don't think that the explanation given by GMAT Tiger is enough. There must be a grammatical explanation, not only logical.

Anyone who can answer the question, please?:why "them" is correctly referring to the chambers in E and not to tourists as in C,D (as per explanation in OG 12)

Thanks!
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Can someone answer to daagh's question, it is very relevant...


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Look at X&Y consistency when you see the keyword "and" after the underlined portion.

You notice the second half says "...and fungus was growing on the walls"

So whatever is to the left of the word "and" needs to be consistent.

Between (C) and (E) - which would you choose?

(C): "..such that salt from the stone would crystallize"

(E): "..to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing"

Between the two, we need (E) so we get:

"[X] was crystallizing and [y] was growing"

So as you can see, this is simply an X&Y consistency question.
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(A) due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing
1: Modifier Error - which refers to tourists
2: Pronoun Number - "its" should refer to "chambers" - thus number error.
3: Meaning - Use of "due to" implies that the closure of chambers was caused by moisture. This is not correct because closure was caused by the effect of the moisture as explained in choice E.

(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize
1: Verb tense - had exhaled is incorrect verb tense.
2: Parallelism - "salt would crystallize" is not parallel to "fungus was growing".
3: Meaning - Use of "due to" implies that the closure of chambers was caused by moisture. This is not correct because closure was caused by the effect of the moisture as explained in choice E.

(C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize
1: Verb Tense - " were exhaling" is incorrect verb tense; "had raised" is incorrect verb tense.
2: Parallelism - "salt would crystallize" is not parallel to "fungus was growing".

(D) because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize
1: Modifier Error - "raising humidity" appears to modify "tourists" - incorrect
2: Parallelism - "salt crystallize" is not parallel to "fungus was growing".

(E) because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing
Correct.
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I believe, its more of meaning. Initially we talk about the chamber and then present a contrast or a subordinator 'because'. This means that the chambers were closed because the tourists did something. What did they do? 'exhaled moisture' which caused stone to blah blah... so 'them' must refer to chambers.
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