Sentence Correction

In the Gulf of Mexico's 'dead zone,' every summer aquatic life is smothered in an area as large as the state of New Jersey, <which, according to scientists, is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.>

A) which, according to scientists, is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

B) which scientists say is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

C) the cause of which, according to scientists, is excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

D) the cause of which is excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River say the scientists.

E) that comes from the flushing of excess nitrogen down the Mississippi River, according to scientists.

Cybermusings wrote:In the Gulf of Mexico's 'dead zone,' every summer aquatic life is smothered in an area as large as the state of New Jersey, <which, according to scientists, is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.>

A) which, according to scientists, is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

B) which scientists say is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

C) the cause of which, according to scientists, is excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

D) the cause of which is excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River say the scientists.

E) that comes from the flushing of excess nitrogen down the Mississippi River, according to scientists.

Is it C?

Which cannot be used to refer to the entire action in the preceding
clause. which can only refer to nouns immediately preceding it.

So, A and B are out.

D has an awkward construction with "say the scientists" in the end

E - that is incorrectly used

OA please

jayhawk2001 wrote:

Cybermusings wrote:In the Gulf of Mexico's 'dead zone,' every summer aquatic life is smothered in an area as large as the state of New Jersey, <which, according to scientists, is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.>

A) which, according to scientists, is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

B) which scientists say is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

C) the cause of which, according to scientists, is excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

D) the cause of which is excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River say the scientists.

E) that comes from the flushing of excess nitrogen down the Mississippi River, according to scientists.

Is it C?

Which cannot be used to refer to the entire action in the preceding
clause. which can only refer to nouns immediately preceding it.

So, A and B are out.

D has an awkward construction with "say the scientists" in the end

E - that is incorrectly used

OA please

What is 'which' referring to in option C? Moreover, if 'which' is wrong in A & B then why not in C?

Cybermusings wrote:In the Gulf of Mexico's 'dead zone,' every summer aquatic life is smothered in an area as large as the state of New Jersey, <which, according to scientists, is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.>

A) which, according to scientists, is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

B) which scientists say is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

C) the cause of which, according to scientists, is excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

D) the cause of which is excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River say the scientists.

E) that comes from the flushing of excess nitrogen down the Mississippi River, according to scientists.

A and B are wrong because which is relating to NJ ..that shudnt be the case.

CDE
D and E improperly puts "scientists" . Awkward and wordy.

only option C does justice .

sudhir3127 wrote:

Cybermusings wrote:In the Gulf of Mexico's 'dead zone,' every summer aquatic life is smothered in an area as large as the state of New Jersey, <which, according to scientists, is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.>

A) which, according to scientists, is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

B) which scientists say is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

C) the cause of which, according to scientists, is excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River.

D) the cause of which is excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River say the scientists.

E) that comes from the flushing of excess nitrogen down the Mississippi River, according to scientists.

A and B are wrong because which is relating to NJ ..that shudnt be the case.

CDE
D and E improperly puts "scientists" . Awkward and wordy.

only option C does justice .

Still, haven't got the answer for "What is 'which' referring to in option C?"

Also, in option E, apart from "according to scientists" has been placed awkwardly, what's wrong with the sentence? Is there any grammatical mistake or it's just awkward?

Which seems to be referring to "an area as large as New Jersey," which, we know cannot be caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Missisipi river. Therefore, ans cannot be A or B?

In option E, "that comes from..." has no clear referent. Is "that" also referring to "an area as large as New Jersey?"

I'll go with C.

In option C, "the cause of which" refers to some earlier action -- "aquatic life is smothered in an area..."

bbaah wrote:In option C, "the cause of which" refers to some earlier action -- "aquatic life is smothered in an area..."

Still, haven't got the answer for "What is 'which' referring to in option C?"

Must be annoying to many :twisted: But I haven't got any satisfactory answer yet.

'Which' can be used as a pronoun or an adjective. Here, there is no noun or pronoun after 'which'; that means, it is not used as an adjective. Now, if 'which' is used as a pronoun then what is the noun that it is referring to?

@bbaah,
I got your point, but I am looking for some grammar rule that can justify the option C.

Good question. Which must refer to some noun in the sentence. The only noun that I can think of now is the "Dead Zone."

I did some research on the use of which and here's what I found:

(1) "When which is used as a relative pronoun, it refers to the noun immediately preceding it - not to the action of the entire preceding clause." (Manhattan GMAT sentence correction 2007, pg 78)

Therefore in options A, and B, which refers to New Jersey as Sudhir rightly pointed out.

(2) "If which seems to refer to the action of the preceding clause, you must look among the choices for an alternative that either links which properly with a noun antecedent, or that reworks the sentence to avoid the use of which entirely." (Manhattan GMAT sentence correction 2007, pg 78)

Since we have already eliminated A and B based on rule 1 above, lets take a closer look at C, D, and E.

In E, "that" is a relative pronoun with no clear referent.
C and D have similar beginnings, but in D, "say the scientists" is awkward and seems to pop out of nowhere.

So, back to C: C uses "the cause of which" to suggest some event, or state of being. So, in my opinion, "which" refers to the dead zone, which is caused by excess nitrogen flushed down the Mississipi river.
Check out the following website: https://www.classzone.com/books/earth_sc ... page02.cfm

IMO C

imo C

@ Karmayogi

I think that which is not referring to a noun by itself but the entire phrase ''the cause of which'' is acting as a modifier. This phrase is referring to the subject of the previous clause.

There is a little contradiction in my argument as per what does the modifying phrase is referring back to (what is the subject of the previous clause? aquatic life? or the dead zone?) but I am clear that 'which' by itself - logically speaking - is referring to ''the dead zone''.