It was anomalies in the orbit of Uranus that led to the discovery of

+ 1 for E

It,They are ambiguous E option is precise and clear

It was anomalies in the orbit of Uranus that led to the discovery of Neptune.


(A) It was anomalies in the orbit of Uranus that

(B) It was the orbit of Uranus showing anomalies that --> correct

(C) They were anomalies in the orbit of Uranus that

(D) The orbit of Uranus being anomalous was what

(E) The anomalies in the orbit of Uranus was what --> should be "were"

Hello sudarshan22,
I would go for option A. I found a S-V mismatch in option E.
In option E, the subject is "the anomalies" not the whole "anomalies in the orbit". Subject doesn't come within a prepositional term "in the orbit of uranus".

Please argue if I am wrong.

You are correct, answer must be option A. Option E can be omitted for the reason you have mentioned.

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

While the previous sentence required you to improve expression, this question doesn't give you a viable opportunity to correct the rather clumsy phrase at the beginning of the sentence. The original sentence is, perhaps surprisingly, grammatically correct because this is a special type of construction. The entire underlined portion of the sentence operates as the singular subject for led. Since you would never want to choose this option without carefully reviewing the remaining choices, you would probably arrive at the answer by eliminating the others. (B) is a wordier version of (A), so eliminate it. They were anomalies in (C) is just not idiomatic. (D) and (E) seem promising at the start since they seem to provide active alternatives, but being anomalous is ugly enough to disqualify (D) and the subject and verb don't agree in (E). Go with (A).

'It' in the text is only a placeholder and hence ok. . For example, we say,
When the country was reeling under high heat due to drought, it was the few summer showers that provided the much-required drinking water.

'It' does not refer to either the singular shower or the plural showers. Therefore A is ok. While B changes the meaning, There are grammatical errors in the rest of the choices.

Hi sudarshan22,

I have a doubt in option A.

Doesn't that refers to "Anomalies"? That is a Singular Pronoun but Anomalies is a Plural. Can you please help to clarify the same.

No no, do not get confused here "that" does not refer to just "anomalies - Plural" but "anomalies in the orbit of Uranus - Singular".
Please refer to above post from jackspire and daagh for more clarification.

Can "that" refer to a noun phrase - "anomalies in the orbit of Uranus", with a plural subject

Yes. Think of it this way:
It was A that led to the discovery of B.

A - Noun or Noun phrase
'that' is a relative pronoun here and can stand for singular noun or plural noun or noun phrase.
Check this post on the many uses of 'that': https://anaprep.com/sentence-correction ... s-of-that/

Anomalies led to the discovery of B - unclear. Which anomalies? Not known.
Anomalies in the orbit of Uranus led to the discovery of B - clear.
The prepositional phrase 'in the orbit of Uranus' is essential to describe what led to the discovery. It restricts the anomalies to certain specific anomalies about which we are talking. Hence, 'that' refers to the entire noun phrases - it refers to those particular anomalies.