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The chemistry that Bacon first learned was really more like alchemy that used poetic, esoteric language to describe the interactions of metals and minerals.
A) NO CHANGE B) alchemy, which used C) alchemy using D) alchemy, the use of which
The correct answer (according to ACT) is B, but I chose A. The poetic, esoteric language used to describe alchemy is a restrictive clause and therefore requires the word "that" as opposed to "which."
In this case, their intent was clearly that it should be an non-restrictive clause. Here, the details about alchemy are supplementing our understanding of why it was like alchemy, rather than explaining which kind of alchemy it was.
Another way to talk about restrictive/non-restrictive that might make it clearer is "defining" and "non-defining" (respectively). A restrictive/defining relative clause should define "which one".
In this case, we can replace the sentence with a couple options, to see which one makes sense:
The first option, because we're talking about "what kind", is the same as using a restrictive/defining relative clause.
The second option, because we're adding extra information (in this case a new subordinate clause) is similar to using a non-restrictive/non-defining clause.
Hope that helps!
