SC in CAT 6 - physical cosmology

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

How can theory and ability made the field of physical cosmology possible?

This is absolutely possible. Perhaps you're misinterpreting the world 'field'. Here it means 'subject', 'study' or 'exploration'. For example, the invention of the microscope made the field of microbiology possible. Or the theory of evolution made the field of evolutionary biology possible.

This sentence looks awkward using either "because of" or "by".

That's absolutely the intention of the writer. It looks awkward but it turns out to be grammatically correct and logical. That's what makes for a tricky SC problem.

Note that we have a simple passive construction "...was made...by...". To give another example, I could say 'A thief stole my bicycle.' (active) or I could say 'My bicycle was stolen by a thief.' (passive - still fine). But I couldn't say 'My bicycle was stolen because of a thief.'

[SofronieD789]

Hi experts,

Thanks for all explanations above.

Explanation provided by Manhattan:
(C) This choice corrects the first idiom (made possible by) but introduces a new error by removing both and replacing it with and also, which is redundant.

In an official paid question, the correct answer is:
A novelist who turned away from literary realism to write romantic stories about the peasant life and landscape of northern Sweden, Selma Lagerlöf became in 1909 the first woman and also the first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Here is my question:
Is "and also" really redundant?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Good find! Where is that paid-for question sourced from?

I agree with you that 'and also' is not, by itself, a redundant phrase. The word 'also' adds emphasis to a sentence, for example in 'Linda loves swimming, and also climbing.'

Actually, I discourage students I teach from looking for redundancy, as it's really not tested much in GMAT and students tend to eliminate correct answers too hastily when they look for redundancy. With a few exceptions, the concept of redundancy is pretty subjective and is the kind of thing that GMAT stays away from.

[SofronieD789]

Thanks for your explanation.
I am not pretty sure whether it is paid question. But I am certain that it's official.
You can see it here: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/forums/turning-away-from-literary-realism-to-write-romantic-stories-t5815.html

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Thanks for that. It looks like this problem is from one of the GMAT Prep tests that can be found at mba.com