To me none of the options look correct . My Best answer is B. That too I think is wrong, because , and putting

B. because of erosion, prehistoric glacier movement, and volcanic activity that thrust ancient, gold-bearing riverbeds to the surface, and putting gold literally within reach of



This should help answer your second question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/since-vs-because-t24133.html

Madhur

madhur_ahuja wrote:
This should help answer your second question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/since-vs-because-t24133.html

Madhur

Dude but this logic didn't work here...as the OA is E

First of all, quickly see the 3:2 split between "reach for" and "reach of"

Reach of is the correct usage. When to use reach for or reach of?

Well, you always reach for things, as in grabbing. Ex: I reached for my candy and grabbed it before any one could.

If you can achieve/get certain things that's when you use reach of coz you are within the reach "of" something.

Here, in this sentence, gold was within the "reach of" anybody with a pan or shovel.
So that eliminates A and D

Because Vs Since: Because is used in sentences where the "reason" is the most important thing.
Ex: I played cricket because there was nothing else to do.

Please understand that playing cricket was an outcome of doing nothing.. so the most important thing in this sentence is the reason that "there was nothing else to do". In such scenarios you use because.

Since is used in sentences where the reason is already well known or less important.
Ex: Since its your b'day, we'll go out for dinner tonight.
Please understand that we both know its your b'day and that's the reason we use since here.
Since is also used when alluding to time period.
Ex: Since time immemorial, religion and politics have never worked together.

Now let's get on with this sentence. What should we use? Because or Since?

Well, according to the sentence, the reasons for the gold rush seemed to be pretty well known. Erosion, prehistoric glacier movement and ancient gold bearing riverbeds thrust to the surface by volcanic activity..

So as per our understanding of because and since usage, we should be using since here.

E is the most concise and parallel construction.

Hope this helps.