pronoun it

[mingclee2]

1.Federally imposed restrictions on how much they may pay small savers has made difficulties for savings banks as they are competing with such unregulated investment vehicles as money market certificates.
(A) has made difficulties for savings banks as they are competing with such
(B) has made difficulties for savings banks competing with such
(C) have made difficulties for savings banks as they are competing with
(D) have made it difficult for savings banks to compete with such（D）
(E) have made it difficult for savings banks as they are competing with such



I will post the Official Answer, but can someone tell me what does the it in D & E refer to?

Thanks

[anilmanu]

1.Federally imposed restrictions on how much they may pay small savers has made difficulties for savings banks as they are competing with such unregulated investment vehicles as money market certificates.
(A) has made difficulties for savings banks as they are competing with such
(B) has made difficulties for savings banks competing with such
(C) have made difficulties for savings banks as they are competing with
(D) have made it difficult for savings banks to compete with such（D）
(E) have made it difficult for savings banks as they are competing with such



I will post the Official Answer, but can someone tell me what does the it in D & E refer to?

Thanks

D is the right one..
"it" is an implicit pronoun..
A/B is out .. uses "has".
C carries a wrong meaning.
D has the correct meaning.

[diya123]

yes D it is

[abhi426]

D it is.. such as , short and sweet

[powerthelogic]

"they" in C,E is ambigous.

D is concise and good

[siliconfish]

D

(A) has made difficulties for savings banks as they are competing with such
(B) has made difficulties for savings banks competing with such
(C) have made difficulties for savings banks as they are competing with
(D) have made it difficult for savings banks to compete with suchit is an expletive (E) have made it difficult for savings banks as they are competing with such