amysky_0205 wrote:Japan's abundant rainfall and the typically mild temperature throughout most of the country have produced a lush vegetation cover and, despite the mountainous terrain and generally poor soils, it has made possible the raising of a variety of crops.
A. it has made possible the raising of
B. has made it possible for them to raise
C. have made it possible to raise
D. have made it possible for raising
E. thus making it possible for them to raise


OA: C

can someone explain what's wrong with each options? thank u!!!

ceilidh.erickson wrote:This question is particularly tricky because it employs two different uses of the pronoun IT.

As others have pointed out, the subject is plural - RAINFALL and TEMPERATURE. This means that we can't use the subject pronoun "it" in the original sentence, as it would refer to a plural subject. Nor could we have a singular verb HAS, as in B.

The other answer choices also contain IT, but in a different context. TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE is an idiomatic expression, and within idiomatic expressions, we can sometimes use vague pronouns that don't have a specific antecedent. Generally speaking, the GMAT doesn't like vague pronouns, unless they're in idiomatic expressions, such as It is raining, etc.

In E, there is a different pronoun problem: THEM. Who is the "them" raising the variety of crops? The rainfall and the temperature? The Japanese people? If it's the former, that doesn't make much sense. If the latter, we don't actually have that antecedent in the sentence, so THEM is incorrect.

When choosing between C and D, we're left with an idiom distinction: MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO DO or MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR DOING. As with other idioms, there's no rule here. MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO DO is simply the preferred form.