how to solve this question? please help

[trustkip]

The ancient Anasazi harvested such native desert vegetation as the purple-flowered bee plant, what they now commonly call wild spinach in northern Arizona and other parts of the southwestern United States.

A. what they now commonly call
B. a plant that they now commonly call
C. now commonly called
D. and is mow commonly called
E. which it is now commonly called

[theCodeToGMAT]

According to the structure of the sentence & meaning, the underlined part must show something in present and in general.

{A} - INCORRECT; meaning issue -- "what they" means that "ancient Anasazi" call...
{B} - INCORRECT; meaning issue -- "they now" means that "ancient Anasazi" call...
{C} - CORRECT
{D} - INCORRECT; the breakage of sentence by "and" means that Ancient Anasazi is now called.-- meaning issue
{E} - INCORRECT; "it is now" is incorrect

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Hi trustkip,

Is this sentence missing a comma? Either way, I agree with Rahul's explanation.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

[pareekbharat86]

According to the structure of the sentence & meaning, the underlined part must show something in present and in general.

{A} - INCORRECT; meaning issue -- "what they" means that "ancient Anasazi" call...
{B} - INCORRECT; meaning issue -- "they now" means that "ancient Anasazi" call...
{C} - CORRECT
{D} - INCORRECT; the breakage of sentence by "and" means that Ancient Anasazi is now called.-- meaning issue
{E} - INCORRECT; "it is now" is incorrect

What's wrong with 'they'...is it not right to refer to the anasazi civilisation as 'they'? I was deliberating between B and C.

[theCodeToGMAT]

Bharat,
The problem with the usage of "they" is that it refers to ancient Anasazi.. They are ancient and doesn't exist now.. So we cannot use the word "now" in the underlined part; doing so impacts the meaning and tense.