marustern wrote:In addition to Joshi.Komal's response, choice E also slightly changes the meaning from the original's intent (choice A). Be very careful of this in all SC Sentences.

in fact, ALL of the wrong choices, except perhaps choice d, involve significant changes in meaning. to wit:

choice a (correct)
= "lavoisier proved that combustion does not release phlogiston. phlogiston, by the way, is an imaginary substance."

choice b
= "many scientists believed that phlogiston was imaginary and that it was released by combustion,** but lavoisier proved them wrong on at least one of those counts"
**notice the contradictory nature of these claims

choice c
= "phlogiston actually WAS imaginary until lavoisier proved otherwise; at that point, phlogiston decided not to be imaginary anymore"

choice d
not as radically different from (a) as the other choices, but still obfuscates the meaning of the original. on first reading, this sentence sounds as though scientists still believed that phlogiston was released by other chemical processes (just not combustion).

choice e
same contradiction as in choice b ("it's imaginary, but it still exists")

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