Because the collagen fibers in skin line up in the direction of tension, surgical cuts made along these so-called Langer's lines sever fewer fibers and is less likely to leave an unsightly scar.
(A) Because the collagen fibers in skin line up in the direction of tension, surgical cuts made along these so-called Langer's lines sever fewer
(B) Because the collagen fibers in skin line up in the direction of tension, a surgical cut having been made along these so-called Langer's lines severs less
(C) Because the collagen fibers in skin line up in the direction of tension, a surgical cut made along these so-called Langer's lines severs fewer
(D) With the collagen fibers in skin lining up in the direction of tension, surgical cuts made along these so-called Langer's lines sever less
(E) With the collagen fibers in skin lining up in the direction of tension, a surgical cut made along these so-called Langer's lines sever fewer
OA: C
[colo=cy's wrong with Options A and D?[/i][/color]
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Because the collagen fibers in skin line up in the direction
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A key thing to notice here is that the answer choices switch between "surgical cuts" and "a surgical cut". Switches between singular and plural almost always signal an agreement error with either a pronoun or a verb.
Let's simplify our sentence to see where this agreement error happens:
... surgical cuts ... sever fewer fibers and is less likely to leave an unsightly scar.
So the plural noun "cuts" matches the plural verb "sever", but it doesn't match the singular verb "is". Since "is" is not underlined, it must stay the same. That means we need to make everything else in the sentence match it. This means that we need a singular noun "cut" and a singular verb "severs". This eliminates both A and D.
Let's simplify our sentence to see where this agreement error happens:
... surgical cuts ... sever fewer fibers and is less likely to leave an unsightly scar.
So the plural noun "cuts" matches the plural verb "sever", but it doesn't match the singular verb "is". Since "is" is not underlined, it must stay the same. That means we need to make everything else in the sentence match it. This means that we need a singular noun "cut" and a singular verb "severs". This eliminates both A and D.
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