The reason that certain spicy foods, such as the Habanero pepper, make

OE:

There are three errors in the sentence. First, the plural subject “foods” does not agree with the
singular verb “makes.” Second, the pronoun “they” has an ambiguous referent: it could refer either to
“foods” or “people.” Third, “the reason X is because Y” is redundant.

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

(B) The plural subject “foods” does not agree with the singular verb “makes.” In addition, it is not
clear to what “a rise in temperature” is being compared; a clearer and more logical comparison is “a
chemical that stimulates … as does a rise in temperature.”

(C) The pronoun “they” has an ambiguous referent: it could refer either to “foods” or “people.”
In addition, the clause “a rise in temperature does” should be introduced by “as” rather
than “like,” which, in this context, should be used to introduce a noun. The correct forms
of the idiom are “X behaves like Y,” “X behaves as Y does”, or “X behaves as does Y.”

(D) CORRECT. The choice corrects all three errors in the original sentence. The plural "foods" agrees
with the plural "make." The ambiguous "they" is replaced by "these foods," and the redundant
construction “the reason X is because Y” is gone.

(E) The pronoun “they” has an ambiguous referent: it could refer either to “foods” or “people.” In
addition, the clause “the reason X is because Y” is redundant. The correct forms of the idiom are “X is
because Y” and “the reason X is Y.”

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