Question

Change the underlined part of the sentence, if required:
Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving as a kind of snorkel.

• A. That suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving
• B. That has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving
• C. Suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolved
• D. To suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolved
• E. To suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved

Answer 1

The correct option is E To suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved

There is a lack of parallelism ( a balance is achieved within one or more sentences by using elements in the sentence that are grammatically similar in structure, sound and meaning. It is used to balance noun with noun, prepositional phrases with prepositional phrases, participles with participles) in the given sentence. We notice that the use of 'is descended', a verb and 'evolving', a participle do not work together. Options A, B ('descended' and 'evolving), and C ('had descended' and 'evolved') lack parallelism. D uses past tense to describe the situation of someone in the present that had ancestors in the past which is incorrect - here, present tense should be used. Now, we notice that option E rectifies the original errors and does not create errors of its own. Thus, option E is our answer.