The business of harvesting ice during winter and storing it for use in summer became popular towards the late nineteenth century, a practice they eventually replaced with mechanical ice-making machines.
(A) a practice they eventually replaced
(B) but the practice was eventually replaced by
(C) a practice eventually being replaced with
(D) a practice that eventually replaced by
(E) but they eventually replaced the practice with
Scroll down for the answer.
Answer: B
Pronouns: Missing Antecedent, Passive Voice
The original version as well as (E) both contain a pronoun without an antecedent – the sentence never specifies whom they refers to. As a result, both (A) and (E) can be eliminated. (C) and (D) both form passive constructions incorrectly. In (C), the gerund being is unnecessary; in addition, replaced with is less idiomatically correct than replaced by. (D) omits a required verb: the underlined clause should read a practice that was replaced by. (B) correctly constructs the passive voice in standard form – x was replaced by y – and uses but to clearly signal the contrasting relationship between the clauses.
