Official Solution:
To reduce the effect of the sun's ultraviolet rays on the skin during hot summer days, Dr. Steven suggests drinking cold water and to apply Argan oil on the face, which acts like a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight the radiation.
A. to apply Argan oil on the face, which acts like a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight
B. applying Argan oil, which acts like a blocking agent on the face, allowing the skin time for building a protective layer and for fighting
C. applying Argan oil on the face, an oil that acts as a blocking agent, allowing the skin time to build a protective layer to fight
D. applying on the face Argan oil, which acting like a blocking agent allows the skin time to build a protective layer for fighting
E. to apply Argan oil on the face, the oil acts as a blocking agent allowing the skin time for building a protective layer and for fighting
A. Wrong parallelism: Dr. Stevens suggests 2 things: “drinking” and “applying”. The infinitive “to apply” is wrong. Ideally the relative pronoun “which” should touch the modified noun, “Argan oil”. It is sometimes alright to include a vital prepositional phrase between a modifier and the modified noun, but here it is questionable whether the prepositional phrase “on the face” is such a vital modifier. A vital modifier is one that defines the noun - here the phrase “on the face” does not define “Argan oil” but is just some additional information about the oil - thus it would be wrong to consider it vital and insert it between the modifier and the modified noun. Using an absolute phrase modifier removes the ambiguity.
“Act as” means “to function as”. “Act like” means “to behave in a similar way”. Here “Act like” is the wrong idiom.
B. “Act like” is the wrong idiom.
The actions “building a protective layer” and “fighting the radiation” are not independent actions. The first enables the second - the correct meaning is distorted by introducing the conjunction “and” between them.
C. CORRECT. The absolute phrase “an oil that acts as a…. “ is correctly used, eliminating the ambiguity introduced by the relative pronoun “which” in the previous options.
“Acts as” is the correct idiom.
The expression “to build a protective layer to fight… '' correctly depicts that the action “building” enables the action “fighting”.
D. “Act like” is the wrong idiom.
To express an intent, an infinitive is used. Thus “to fight” is better than “for fighting”.
E. Wrong parallelism: Dr. Stevens suggests 2 things: “drinking” and “applying”. The infinitive “to apply” is wrong.
Two independent clauses “Dr. Stevens suggests….” and “ the oil acts….” are separated wrongly by a comma.
The actions “building a protective layer” and “fighting the radiation” are not independent actions. The first enables the second - the correct meaning is distorted by introducing the conjunction “and” between them.
Answer: C
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