Explanation
Creating a filter: On our read of the prompt, "that since"
may sound a little funny. However, "that" introduces the statement that is the
belief of the scientists, according to proper usage. And the statement just
happens to begin with the word "since," which introduces a dependent clause.
Moreover, all the answer choices have the phrase "that since." Supposing that
we don't see any other error, we can move to the answer choices without a
filter and search for objective defects.
Finding objective defects: All the answers are starting
out the same, but we see differences at the ends of the lines of each answer
choices. "And," "should," "did." To find
objective defects, we can first compare the answer choices and look for
differences.
Choice (B) is flawed because of the "and" at the end: it
changes the meaning of the sentence. The scientists are drawing a conclusion in
this sentence, and that conclusion is the last four words of the sentence, a
clause all on its own, and since it's the sole conclusion, what precedes it is
evidence for the conclusion, and it shouldn't be preceded by an "and."
Choice (C) is out, because it distorts the intended
meaning by replacing a finding with an expectation or moral view indicated by
"should."
Choice (D) is flawed in a similar way to (C): "did
outperform" does not need a "did." The word "did" seems to imply a contrast
with a prior opinion or belief, but there are no hints in the sentence of such
an intended meaning.
That leaves us with choices (A) and (E), which are
similar.Comparing them, we find that
(A) has an error that we hadn't noticed at first. It has no main verb! The
phrase starting with "concluding" is a dependent clause and can be logically
extracted from the sentence, leaving "scientists caffeine enhances" and there
is no verb in the sentence. So (A) is wrong; it failed to pass our first
universal test, the test of the subject and verb of the independent clause. The
correct answer is (E).
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