Difficulty: Medium
Correct Answer: there was an informative program about innovations in medical imaging, a program you would have found interesting.
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
This question focuses on sentence improvement. The original sentence is slightly wordy and contains the redundant phrase new innovations. Your task is to choose the revision that is clearest and grammatically best while avoiding redundancy, vague pronoun references, and awkward structure. All options remove the initial prepositional phrase about the TV channel, so the emphasis is on how the core idea is expressed.
Given Data / Assumptions:
- The original idea is that an informative program about innovations in medical imaging was broadcast, and the listener would have found it interesting.
- The revision should avoid redundancy such as new innovations, because innovations are by definition new.
- It should also make clear what you would have found interesting without unclear use of they.
Concept / Approach:
Good sentence revisions aim for clear subject reference, avoid wordiness and redundancy, and maintain grammatical correctness. The phrase new innovations is redundant, so using innovations alone is better. Also, the pronoun they in the original sentence has a vague reference. A clearer construction is to state directly that there was an informative program and then restate program in a short appositive phrase to show that this program is what you would have found interesting.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Examine option a: "there was an informative program about innovations in medical imaging, a program you would have found interesting." This version removes the word new, keeps innovations, and uses a program in apposition to clarify the object of your interest.
Step 2: Option a is grammatically correct and very clear. It avoids the vague pronoun they and redundant new innovations.
Step 3: Consider option b: "they showed an informative program about innovations in medical imaging, which you would have found interesting." Here, they may be unclear, because the subject is not explicitly introduced in the new sentence.
Step 4: Option c says "new innovations" and uses that instead of which. The phrase new innovations remains redundant, and the combination that you would have found interesting is less smooth in this nonrestrictive context.
Step 5: Option d also contains the redundant phrase new innovations and uses they without a clear prior subject. This makes it weaker than option a.
Step 6: Comparing all options, option a gives the most concise, precise and grammatically strong revision.
Verification / Alternative check:
Test option a by reading it aloud: "There was an informative program about innovations in medical imaging, a program you would have found interesting." The meaning is explicit and unambiguous. You know what existed, what it was about, and that this same program is considered interesting to the listener. None of the other options improves clarity or correctness beyond this version, especially because they either retain redundancy or keep the unclear subject they.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option b: Uses they without a clear antecedent and, although close to correct, is slightly less precise than repeating program.
Option c: Retains the redundancy of new innovations and uses that where a nonrestrictive which or appositive structure would be more natural.
Option d: Combines the weak pronoun they with the redundant phrase new innovations, making it the least improved of the choices.
Common Pitfalls:
Students often overlook redundancy in phrases like new innovations, past history or added bonus. In sentence improvement questions, exam setters frequently target such wording. Another trap is retaining vague pronouns like they when the subject is not clearly defined in the new version. To avoid these pitfalls, aim for sentences where each pronoun has a clear reference and every word adds meaning rather than repetition.
Final Answer:
The best revision is "there was an informative program about innovations in medical imaging, a program you would have found interesting."
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