Though research remains to be done into the reasons why the Civil War

Question

Though research remains to be done into the reasons why the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not regard slavery to be the sole cause .

(A) Though research remains to be done into the reasons why the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not regard slavery to be the sole cause.

(B) Though research remains to be done into what triggered the Civil War, scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause.

(C) Though the reasons that triggered the Civil War remain to be researched, slavery is not regarded by scholars to be the sole cause.

(D) Despite research remaining into the reasons why the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause.

(E) Scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause of the Civil War, though the reasons for it being triggered remain to be researched.

abhimahna · Accepted Answer

"Regarded to be" is incorrect and "reasons why/reasons being" is also incorrect.

(A) Though research remains to be done into the reasons why the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not  regard  slavery  to be  the sole cause.

(B) Though research remains to be done into what triggered the Civil War, scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause.

(C) Though the reasons that triggered the Civil War remain to be researched, slavery is not  regarded  by scholars  to be  the sole cause.

(D) Despite research remaining into the  reasons why  the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause.

(E) Scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause of the Civil War, though the  reasons  for it  being  triggered remain to be researched.

Nightmare007 · Answer

Agree B is grammatically correct. Isn't it changing meaning .
Reasons why Civil war was triggered
To
What triggered Civil war. ?
daagh sir. Can you please provide some light. whether these two mean the same.

abhimahna · Answer

Hi Nightmare007 , The original meaning of the sentence is maintained only when we have a choice which is both grammatically correct and logical. If you do not find any such choice, then it is okay to move on with the sentence that changes the meaning. I hope that makes sense.

BillyZ · Answer

Official Explanation from Manhattan Prep 
The original sentence contains the wordy and awkward construction "the reasons why the Civil War was triggered." Also, the correct idiom is "regard X as Y", not "regard X to be Y".

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

(B) CORRECT . This choice uses the concise phrase "what triggered the Civil War" and uses the idiomatic phrase "regard slavery as the sole cause" (regard X as Y).

(C) This choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic "slavery is not regarded . . . to be the sole cause." Also, the main clause has been rewritten in the passive voice unnecessarily.

(D) This choice contains the redundancy "reasons why" and the awkward phrasing "despite research remaining."

(E) This choice incorrectly introduces an ambiguous pronoun ("it") that could refer either to slavery or to the Civil War.

nitish3052 · Answer

B is correct according to both parallel construction and idiomatic construction wise

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brandon7 · Answer

How is "Research remains to be done" grammatically correct?

verb + to be done??

naftalihazony · Answer

I second this question.

Research remains to be done INTO X??

how is this correct?

LoneSurvivor · Answer

Experts please clear one thing although Regard as is the correct idiom but In option B don't you thing there is a modifier error. The first independent clause in B talks about reason so second clause must start with the reason ( Slavery ) .

Though research remains to be done into the reasons why the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not regard slavery to be the sole cause.

(A) Though research remains to be done into the reasons why the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not regard slavery to be the sole cause.

(B) Though research remains to be done into what triggered the Civil War,  scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause .

(C) Though the reasons that triggered the Civil War remain to be researched, slavery is not regarded by scholars to be the sole cause.

(D) Despite research remaining into the reasons why the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause.

(E) Scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause of the Civil War, though the reasons for it being triggered remain to be researched.

AjiteshArun · Answer

The  though  you see in the correct option is not restricted in any such way. For example:

Though the student said that silly mistakes were the reason he didn't get a 700,  his  instructor   advised him to continue working on his concepts.

Here the independent clause starts with  instructor .

Where did you come across a "rule" like this? Or are you thinking about something like this:

Although  prepared ,  a GMAT  appointment   was not booked by him.  
  Although  prepared .   he   did not book a GMAT appointment.

LoneSurvivor · Answer

Hi thanks for clarifying, I am thinking like the way you referred your 2nd example. Please let me know where I am going wrong.

Namangupta1997 · Answer

Hi  AjiteshArun

In the correct answer choice B , isn't there a wrong comparison ? Seems like "research" is being compared to "scholars".

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  Namangupta1997 ,

We'll have to be a little careful here. There's no reason for us to insist that the explicit subject of a dependent clause and the subject of an independent clause have to be the same, or even similar.

1.   Although   the weather  was great,  we  decided not to go out.  ← Clearly,  the weather  and  we  are very different things.

This changes if the subject of the dependent clause is  not  explicitly mentioned:

2.    Although   great ,  we  decided not to go out.   ← This is incorrect if what we're really trying to say is that  the weather  was great.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Namangupta1997 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the use of "though" is used to convey contrast, but it does not necessarily imply that a comparison is being made.

The structure of this sentence simply conveys that research remains to be done into what triggered the Civil War, but scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause; no comparison is being made.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

stoned · Answer

Also c changes the essence of the sentence, it seems that reasons are already known and they are to be researched

VerbalBot · Answer

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Though research remains to be done into the reasons why the Civil War

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Though research remains to be done into the reasons why the Civil War

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