Multiple choice

Directions: This question presents a sentence, all or part of which is underlined. Beneath the sentence you will find five ways of phrasing the underlined part. The first of these repeats the original; the other four are different. If you think the original is the best, choose the first answer; otherwise choose any one of the others.

Given the religious idea as already existing, in what way, and to what extent has its development been affected by forces that are not in themselves religious, and which modern thought definitely separates from religion?

  1. and to what extent has its development been affected by forces that are not in themselves religious,

  2. and to what extent has their development been affected by forces that are not in themselves religious,

  3. and to some extent has its development been affected by forces that are not in themselves religious,

  4. but to what extent has its development been affected by forces that are not in themselves religious,

  5. and to what extent has its development been effected by forces that are not in themselves religious,
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A Correct answer
Explanation

Explanation for (1): The sentence is correct as given. 

Explanation for (2): The option introduces a pronoun consistency error. The pronoun 'their' stands for 'religious idea', so the possessive should be singular 'its', not 'their'. 

Explanation for (3): The option changes 'and to what extent' to 'and to some extent' which is ungrammatical in relation to the rest of the question. 
Explanation for (4):. The sentence wrongly uses the conjunction 'but' to join the two questions asked in the sentence.  'In what way' and 'to what extent' should be correctly joined by 'and' and not 'but'. Explanation for (5): The option has a diction error.  The correct word to use is 'affected' which means 'changed'.  'Effected' means 'resulted' and changes the meaning of the sentence.

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