Official Solution:
A new telescope scheduled for completion in 2012 is greatly anticipated by astronomy enthusiasts because engineers claim that the machine will allow the night sky to be observed more clearly than never before and stargazers using the telescope will be able to see constellations that cannot presently be observed- almost perfectly.
A. observed more clearly than never before and
B. more than ever before clearly visible as
C. more clearly observed than ever before and that
D. more clearly visible as never before while
E. clearly observed more than ever before so
This sentence contains two errors.
(1) First, the construction
more... than never before is idiomatically incorrect The correct idiom is
more ... than ever before.
(2) In addition, there is an error in parallel construction.
Because the engineers make two claims, and the first is introduced by that (that the machine will allow.), the second claim about stargazers, must also be introduced by that. Without the
that, the sentence is a run-on, because two independent clauses are connected by the conjunction
and with no comma.
Choice B fixes the idiomatic error, but jumbles the word order illogically and incorrectly introduces the second clause with
as.
Choice
C corrects the idiomatic error, and correctly introduces the second clause with
that (creating parallelism).
Choice D fails to correct the idiomatic error.
Choice E fixes the idiomatic error. However, it also uses uses
so to incorrectly convey that the second clause is a result of the first, and the sentence lacks parallelism because the second clause still fails to be introduced by
that. Additionally, this option changes the meaning of the sentence by stating that the the night sky will be
clearly observed more -- that the
sky will be
observed with greater frequency. The original states that the sky will be
observed more clearly, or that the sky will be observed with a better resolution.
Answer: C
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