Since Gracie is writing an academic essay and needs to make her ideas clear, she needs to revise the following sentence: It always amazes me when people get excited about the snow because for me, it's commonplace. What does she need to do? Select one: a. Replace the contraction it's with "it is" b. Change the word "gets" to "got" c. Eliminate "it always amazes me when" d. Revise the entire sentence so it reads: Though it is mind-boggling, people maintain their enthusiasm about snow; however, for me, it's nothing more than a commonplace experience.

D. Revise the entire sentence so it reads: Though it is mind-boggling, people maintain their enthusiasm about snow; however, for me, it's nothing more than a commonplace experience.

Explanation:

The revised sentence above is more objective and formal for academic writing. Although both sentences talk about a personal opinion, the second version is more academic because it establishes the opinion of others first and then it introduces the personal opinion, that makes it more objective. Moreover, the original sentence has too many informal elements, while the second option proves to be more fit for academic writing.

Option A = WRONG because although contractions are not usually allowed in academic writing, they can be used and besides, this option does not completely answer the question, we need to change more things to make it right for academic writing.

Option B = WRONG because the sentence is written in simple present.

Option C = WRONG because if we eliminate "it always amazes me when" the rest of the sentence doesn't make sense, it would read "People get excited about snow because for me, it's commonplace"