SAT Writing question on "thus"

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1

I was confused on the usage of the word thus. On this question, I ended up wrongly going for answer choice B.

Many Americans are passionate about preserving natural resources, [which makes it a fierce political debate].

b) thus the political debate is fierce
e) a situation that makes for fierce political debate

I knew “it” was ambiguous, so I was torn between those two choices.
Can anyone weigh in on this?

2

“Thus” is NOT one of the FANBOYS (coordinating conjunctions), so it must be treated like “therefore” and “however” (conjunctive adverbs).

3

Ah, alright thanks!
And letter e sounds a lot better now in retrospect…

4

“sounds better” is not an SAT grammar rule. Learn the rules.