by avishal Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:07 am
First of all, the question is: "due to" or "because"? Note that due to is an adjectival phrase (adjectives modify nouns/pronouns) whereas because is an adverbial phrase (modifies verbs). What is due to modifying? It's not very apparent from the sentence but (to me) it looks like it's the need for "cleaning and repair". So, if I were to paraphrase, it would be - "the chambers.. were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair, required (due to / because)...". So, due to seems to be linking the the verb "to need" to the reasons cited by the latter phrase. Therefore, you can't use due to here.
I'm not very good at differentiating between verbs and nouns, so I use a general tip (apparently, correct 99% times), which is to look out for a "to be" verb immediately preceding the linking phrase to judge whether it should be "due to" or "because". Examples (correct): They were defeated because of their poor form. The defeat was due to their poor form.
A and B are thus incorrect.
D is incorrect because (not due to) a) 'raising' incorrectly modifies tourists and not moisture, and b) "them" doesn't have a clear referent.
E is incorrect because "was crystallizing" doesn't sound idiomatic to me.
That leaves C. I'm not 100% sure if "such that x would y" is correct idiom but it sounds better than "was crystallizing".