Because lack of education is the root cause of many other social ills

Question

Because lack of education is the root cause of many other social ills is the reason why  most planners attack illiteracy first.

(A) Because lack of education is the root cause of many other social ills is the reason why

(B) Lack of education is the root cause of many other social ills and is the reason why

(C) Because lack of education is the root cause of many other social ills,

(D) As a result of lack of education being the root cause of many other social ills

(E) Because lack of education is the root cause of many illnesses in the society,

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation:

Answer: C

The use of  because  and  is the reason  in the same sentence is redundant, so eliminate A. C gets this right and is the correct answer.

B. This sentence makes it appear as though  lack of education  is the reason why planners attack illiteracy first, whereas it is the entire first clause that is the reason and not just the lack of education.

D. Awkward and wordy construction because of the usage of being.

E. Distorts the meaning by changing  social ills  into  illnesses in society .

plaverbach · Answer

I was between C and E.

They had different meanings, but I could not see why one was better than the other. Furthermore, others seems to not have a reference. Can any one help me here?

Posted from my mobile device

mabhatia82 · Answer

Between C & E - I am not able to find the exact problem in E. 
pls explain

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  plaverbach  and  mabhatia82 . Whenever you encounter similar answer choices, look to the slight  differences  to tease them apart. Consider them both in terms of meaning and terseness, keeping in mind that the GMAT™ prefers the clear and concise expression of vital meaning.

Notice that (C) says   other  social ills . For this to work, we must be able to find another social ill or societal problem in the latter part of the sentence (the non-underlined part). We do indeed find a social ill in  illiteracy . Thus, in terms of meaning, everything checks out in (C), and only three words were used to convey that meaning.

In (E), there are two oddities that catch my eye. The first is  illnesses , and the second, believe it or not, is the article  the  in front of  society . Why would we need that extra word when  in society  would suffice? The bigger issue, though, is that  illnesses in society  conjures up images of viral or bacterial infections such as the flu or, more commonly at this time, COVID. To say that a lack of education  causes  the flu or some other malady is completely nonsensical. In short, we have two reasons to doubt (E), whereas we had none before, with (C). This should be an easy pick at this point.

I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

ElijahTimroyalty · Answer

there is no need to spend time on this question, aristole's question is not a good example of high quality question

Because lack of education is the root cause of many other social ills

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Because lack of education is the root cause of many other social ills

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