Despite an expensive publicity campaign, ticket sales for the new play

so (adj) that (noun)
C,D -remain

Play cannot close on its own. "was closed" makes sense.

D

adjective + enough + to

so + adjective + that + clause

Poor enough that is wrong idiom, so A) B) are wrong

C) is not good, it seems "only" modifies closed or after

E) is arkward

D) is the best

Despite an expensive publicity campaign, ticket sales for the new play were poor enough that it closed only after two weeks.

A)poor enough that it closed only after two weeks
B)poor enough that it was closed after only two weeks
C)so poor that it closed only after two weeks
D)so poor that it was closed after only two weeks
E)so poor that only after two weeks it closed

Despite X,Y occurs
X and Y should contradict each other or represent opp. scenarios.
(A) and (B) eliminated since the degree of contradition is less compared to so poor used in (C),(D),(E)

only after 2 weeks -> stresses that two weeks is a long time
after only 2 weeks -> this stresses on two days being earlier

here the second scenario is apt.
hence (C) and (E) are out and
(D) is correct

I don't doubt the answer but...

Subject is : Ticket sales ... for the play is the prepositional modifier.

So can it point to the play?

Or specifically...

Can it refer to a prepositional phrase object when logically it is the only thing it can point to?

Any advice will be appreciated sayantanc2k

I have not come across any official guideline that states that a pronoun cannot refer to a noun within a prepositional phrase.

A,C and E -- Out because of meaning error (Play cannot close itself)
Between B and D, D is better than B.

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The original sentence contains the words "poor enough that it closed..." However, "[Adjective] enough that [Clause]" is an incorrect idiomatic form. The proper idiom with a clause is " so [Adjective] that [Clause]." In this case, the sentence should read " so poor that..."

In addition, the placement of "only" is incorrect. "Only" should be placed immediately before the word it modifies. In this case, "only" modifies "two weeks," so it should be placed immediately before "two weeks."

Also, note that every choice contains the word "it" (which refers to "the new play," the topic if not the grammatical subject of the sentence). Thus, pronouns are not an issue in this problem.

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) The idiom "X enough to Y" should be replaced with "so X that Y," and the word "only" should be directly in front of the time phrase it modifies, "two weeks."

(C) The word "only" should be directly in front of the time phrase it modifies: "two weeks."

(D) CORRECT. This proper idiom "so X that Y" is used, and the word "only" comes directly in front of the time phrase it modifies, "two weeks."

(E) As in choice (C), the word "only" should be directly in front of the time phrase it modifies: "two weeks."

Answer is D imo since there's a correct X & Y relation.