The cardinals remained in the Sistine Chapel for

I am between A and D. Could moderator provide this question answer and explanation?

The cardinals remained in the Sistine Chapel for far longer than the Vatican reporters expected, which indicates that the deliberation over the new pope was both spirited and contemplative.

A. which indicates that the deliberation over the new pope was both spirited and contemplative
It is incorrect to use WHICH to modify an idea presented in previous sentence. Hence Incorrect

B. which indicates that the deliberation over the new pope both was spirited and contemplative
It is incorrect to use WHICH to modify an idea presented in previous sentence. Placement of BOTH is incorrect considering parallelism. Hence Incorrect

C. a situation indicating the deliberation over the new pope was both spirited and it was contemplative
Use of "A situation" is correct, but lack of THAT after INDICATING changes the original intent subtly since the option now means that the situation is pointing at deliberation as if deliberation is an object. Use of IT leads to Run-On sentence. Hence Incorrect.

D. indicating that the deliberation over the new pope was both spirited and contemplative
CORRECT

E. indicates that the deliberation over the new pope was both spirited and contemplative
Use of INDICATES leads to a FRAGMENTED sentence since the subject is missing without proper punctuation. Hence Incorrect.

Hi kimrani ,

A cannot be the answer as we have 'which' in A.

This 'which' has no noun to refer to.

As per the rule, which must have a noun before it to modify.

For example:

I bought a car, which was blue in color.

I hope that makes sense.

abhimahna: Thank you for the explanation!

The cardinals remained in the Sistine Chapel for far longer than the Vatican reporters expected, which indicates that the deliberation over the new pope was both spirited and contemplative.

A. which indicates that the deliberation over the new pope was both spirited and contemplative - this clause modifies 'expected; this modification does not make sense. Hence, eliminate (A)

B. which indicates that the deliberation over the new pope both was spirited and contemplative - Same error as in (A). Hence, eliminate (B)

C. a situation indicating the deliberation over the new pope was both spirited and it was contemplative - there are two errors here -

Error #1: 'that' is missing here to accurately indicate the subordinate clause that's used here.
Error #2: Parallelism error - an adjective (spirited) is being placed parallel to a pronoun (it). Here, we have a parallelism error.

Hence, eliminate (C)

D. indicating that the deliberation over the new pope was both spirited and contemplative - here, we have an -ing modifier clause that modifies the verb 'remain'. Hence, (D) is the right answer choice.

E. indicates that the deliberation over the new pope was both spirited and contemplative - a very subtle difference with (D). Here, 'indicates' is in the present tense while the intended meaning was to convey that the act of indication took place in the past (since we have '' was '' in this underlined portion). Hence, eliminate (E).