Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that dama

Question

Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that damage the clarity of their prose,  but these habits can be broken  if they are willing to take the necessary trouble.

(A) but these habits can be broken
(B) but these habits are breakable
(C) but they can break these habits
(D) which can be broken
(E) except that can be broken

sankarpvk · Accepted Answer

C is the correct answer
Pronoun that immediately follows the "but" which comes after a comma ,unambiguously refer to the first subject in the statement. here it refers to the scientists in C. Moreover we are talking about scientists. So the correct answer is C.

nmohindru · Answer

We need to talk about writers not their habits. Only C) does it.

joshnsit · Answer

Many writers   of modern English have acquired ..., but   they   can break these habits if   they   are willing .....trouble.
 ^ 
 |------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|

In choice C, the subjects are absolutely parallel and same across the structure, therefore the most perfect choice. I hope the reasoning should be enough. Please let me know, if any flaw in this.

contacttoakhil · Answer

C is the best candidate. Many writers (plural) have acquired habits....but they can break these habits.... According to some previous posts there is ambiguity in they . but they can break these habits Now they cannot refer to habits as habits cannot break habits so the only other possibility is they refer to Writers. Now in the remaining portion: if they are willing to take the necessary trouble. Here also they can refer to writers only. As there is no ambiguity sentence construction seems reasonable. However the better construction would have been: Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that damage the clarity of their prose, but the writers can break these habits if these writers are willing to take the necessary trouble. I hope it makes sense now.

iamdp · Answer

(A) but these habits can be broken  > Passive 
(B) but these habits are breakable   > Passive  
(C)  but they can break these habits 
(D)  which  can be broken
(E)  except that can be broken

DharLog · Answer

Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that damage the clarity of their prose,  but these habits can be broken  if they are willing to take the necessary trouble.
-----------

(A) but these habits can be broken
 In this case it is not clear to what noun does "they" (that comes after underlined part) refer to. Is it "writers" or "habits", we understand that it is "writers", but still. And passive.

(B) but these habits are breakable
 Same as in A

(C) but they can break these habits
 Good. The first "they", and the second one refer to "writers". And active.

(D) which can be broken
 "which" modifies the last noun ("prose" in our case), but "prose can be broken" makes no sense

(E) except that can be broken
 No sense at all

GittinGud · Answer

IMO all the options are incorrect because 'they' in all the options are ambiguous. SC experts please help.

mccraygmat0326 · Answer

In choice A it reads as if they refers to habits (which is incorrect). Choice C corrects ambiguity error and uses active voice which GMAT prefers.

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thangvietnam · Answer

subject should be the same in both dependent clause and independent clause. this is the point tested.

if we choose choice A, "they " in "they are willing" will refer to "habits". this makes no sense.

emcheeks · Answer

tbh, you really can only approach this answer by passive/active voice. Since gmat prefers active voice, we should choose C.

Many people argue that we have to declare "they" in underlined part, or the other "they" in non-underlined part would not make sense. However, that doesn't seem true to me. Remember, they usually refer to the subject the sentence first (in this case, writers). If that doesn't make logical sense, then we move to the next plural noun that makes logical sense. Therefore, even if we don't have "they" in the underlined part, the other "they" in the non-underlined part would still make sense since it refers to "writers" and not anything else.

Hoozan · Answer

EducationAisle  please could you provide a grammatical reason as to why (C) > (A)

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Hoozan, couple of things in A, that tilt the favor against it:

1)  these habits can be broken  is not explicitly stating  who  can break these habits. C is clearer in this respect, since it says that  they  (writers) can break these habits.

2)  they (subject pronoun)  in A  grammatically  seems to refer to  these habits  (subject noun of the previous clause), while  they  is  logically  intended to refer to  writers .

Snehaaaaa · Answer

Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that damage the clarity of their prose,  but these habits can be broken  if they are willing to take the necessary trouble.

(A) but these habits can be broken- The they in the non-underlined part after broken is ambiguous. It should not point to habits. 
(B) but these habits are breakable- The they in the non-underlined part after broken is ambiguous. It should not point to habits. 
 (C) but they can break these habits- Clear and concise 
(D) which can be broken- usage of which is incorrect here as it can point to prose or clarity-both of which are wrong
(E) except that can be broken- clearly wrong

KlaraDart · Answer

The correct answer is C. I'm pretty sure. After my English teacher gave me many worksheets to solve, I think I became a pro.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that dama

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Many writers of modern English have acquired careless habits that dama

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