According to a panel of health officials, there has been a great deal

I think C? Dont you have confusion "over" something? Like "i am confused over which car to buy"

I think you need to follow parallel with "to appearance" so answers B,E are no good since they dont have "to" at the end.D has the more after appearance and i think that is wrong.

A.

B) I don't like "being" in the sentence, also we need "to" at the end for parallelism between appearance and health.
C) Somewhere I read that "whether or not" should not be used
D) "if" should be "whether"
E) we need "to" at the end for parallelism between appearance and health.

I think I'll go with (A). It is grammatically correct and parallel. Also, I'm not sure, but I think confusion ABOUT is an acceptable idiom.

(B) or if it is sounds wordy, the use of "whether" is a better choice.
(C) "whether or not" is unidiomatic, "whether" alone suffices, anything with the phrase "whether or not" should automatically be a wrong answer.
(D) this choice also uses "if it is".
(E) I think "or it is" is redundant. The most concise way to say something is "whether obesity is X or Y", NOT "whether obesity is X, or it is Y..." I'm not sure whether "confusion concerning" is unidiomatic or not, but the "or it is" alone should be enough to disqualify this answer.

I somehow disagree with A being the correct answer.
In the construction, 'whether X or Y', X and Y should be parallel.
In A, 'obesity is a biological disorder'[sub+linking verb+compliment] is not parallel with 'a condition more related to'.
In E, the two fragments, 'Obesity is a biological disorder' and 'it is a condition' are parallel.
Hence, E is the correct choice.

I don't understand why 'it is' is not required.
I chose E over A, only because of the 'it is' in it. The idiomatic 'expression is whether X or Y', where X and Y should be parallel. Just because someone colors two part of a sentence 'blue' does not mean that it is parallel and concise.

Atleast, bigoyal's reasoning sounds plausible..

Instantly, I was also with E as the than at the end sounds correct.

Interesting discussion. I agree that coloring alone does not make two parts parallel and concise but in this case, the reasoning is sound. '...whether obesity is a X (a noun) or a Y (noun again)...' is parallel construction.

As to why 'it is' is not required in the second part, compare the following sentences:

I don't know whether he is right or wrong.
I don't know whether he is right or he is wrong.

IMO, the first sentence is better.

Option (A) is the correct choice asit uses past perfect tense because major depression or its effect is continuous and both of these sentences are independent and related as we are talking about Americans. Hence (a).

In option A,
about whether is used, I think it is redundant to use use both

Kindly clarify

Hi VeritasKarishma

I believe that the idiom "whether X or Y" requires X and Y to be parallel.
Considering this condition, I chose choice E as it has 2 parallel clauses (obesity is a biological disorder and it is a condition)

Whereas Choice A states a clause "obesity is a biological disorder" and a noun "a condition"
"whether obesity is a biological disorder posing serious health risks or a condition more related to appearance than to

Please help me understand where I am stumbling.

Usual format is
"...whether A is B..."

... whether she will join the dinner...
"or not" is implied here and needn't be used.
... whether she will join the dinner or not join the dinner (has redundancy)


But if the choice is between two specific things, then we can say:

... whether she will join the dinner or fly back home... (the option is between two things that she can do)
... whether she will join the dinner or the conference...

Both are correct. It depends on what we need to say.

This is redundant:
... whether she will join the dinner or she will fly back home...

(A) about whether obesity is a biological disorder posing serious health risks or a condition more related to appearance than to
a condition is the perfect usage and the meaning is perfect therefore let us hang on to it

(B) with respect to obesity being a biological disorder posing serious health risks or if it is related more to appearance than
with respect to isn't the right usage therefore let us discard

(C) over whether or not obesity is a biological disorder posing serious health risks or it is a condition more related to appearance than to
whether or not required in addition it is not required therefore out

(D) about obesity and if it is a biological disorder posing serious health risks or a condition related to appearance more than to
if it is not required and it distorts the meaning

(E) concerning whether obesity is a biological disorder posing serious health risks or it is a condition related to appearance more than
Similar reasoning as C

Hello,

May I know what is the reason behind "than is incorrect" for option E?

Hello Venkat999,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the issue in Option E is one of idiom; the correct idiomatic construction is "more A than B" - as seen in Option A - but, Option E uses the construction "A ("appearance") more than B ("health"); remember, "more A than B" is the correct, idiomatic comparison; A and B must be comparable and parallel.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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