SC: Despite

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

I have a question form the MGMAT SC Question Bank:

Though research remains to be done into the reasons why the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not regard slavery to be the sole cause.

Though research remains to be done into the reasons why the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not regard slavery to be the sole cause.

Though research remains to be done into what triggered the Civil War, scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause.

Though the reasons that triggered the Civil War remain to be researched, slavery is not regarded by scholars to be the sole cause.

Despite research remaining into the reasons why the Civil War was triggered, scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause.

Scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause of the Civil War, though the reasons for it being triggered remain to be researched.

The explanation says: The correct answer is B.
(D) This choice contains the redundancy "reasons why" and the awkward phrasing "despite research remaining."

Then, "despite research remaining" is always WRONG???
I suppose that "despite remaining research" should be wrong, too. Please confirm.

[esledge]

"research remaining" would always be wrong, I think. What makes this awkward is the noun-modifier order.

"remaining research" is a little less awkard, as the order is modifier-noun (more common in English), and could probably be used correctly in other contexts: The remaining research will take at least 10 years to complete. Note that this works because the intended subject is the research--that's what will take 10 years to complete.

In this sentence, I think you still could not use "remaining research" correctly, for "research" is simply the wrong noun:

It is not despite the research itself that scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause of the Civil War.

It is despite the fact that research remains that scholars do not regard slavery as the sole cause of the Civil War.