Bunuel wrote:
The Sherpa people, indigenous to the mountainous regions of eastern Nepal, have the ability to easily perform the demanding tasks of high-altitude mountaineering, and then can do this because of their specially adapted hemoglobin-binding capacity.
A. have the ability to easily perform the demanding tasks of high-altitude mountaineering, and then can do this because of their
B. are able, in high-altitude conditions, of performing easily the demanding tasks of mountaineering, due to their
C. are able to perform with ease the demanding tasks of high-altitude mountaineering because of their
D. can perform easily the demanding tasks of high-altitude mountaineering with a
E. have the ability to perform with ease the tasks of mountaineering that are demanding because of high-altitude, because of their
Magoosh Official Explanation:
A question about the Sherpa people.
Split #1: idiomThe words “able” and “ability” always take the infinitive. Any other construction (e.g. “of” + [gerund]) is 100% incorrect. Four of the choices have the idiom right, but choice (B) has “able . . . of performing”—an idiom mistake. Choice (B) is incorrect.
Split #2: pronounsThe antecedent of a pronoun must be a noun. A pronoun cannot refer to the action of a clause. In choice (A), the pronoun “this” refers to the action of the previous clause. Choice (A) is incorrect.
Split #3: attributing causeThe Sherpa people have this mountaineering ability, and the cause of this ability is “their specially adapted hemoglobin-binding capacity.” We need to state this cause clearly.
Choice (B) makes a “due to” mistake. The word “due” is an adjective and applies only to nouns. We can use “due to” to refer to a noun, not to the action of a clause. Choice (B) is incorrect.
Choice (D) uses a very casual “with” phrase. Logically, this does not make clear the causal connection. Choice (D) is incorrect.
These splits leave (C) & (E). Look at how long and wordy and rambling choice (E) is. The construction “tasks . . . that are demanding” is quite indirect and convoluted compared to “demanding task.” The double “because of” at the end is very awkward. Rhetorically, it makes just about every bad choice possible in this sentence. Even though this is basically grammatically correct, there’s no way choice (E) could be the correct answer.
The only possible choice is (C).