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SC - idioms vs concision - example below:

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SC - idioms vs concision - example below: [#permalink] New post 07 Jul 2012, 13:54
Hi GMATers,

I came across the below in the free MGMAT CAT and wouldn't mind your view on it.

To this day, researchers and theorists debate whether bubonic plague caused The Black Death, a pandemic that swept the world in the middle of the fourteenth century.

whether
whether or not
about whether
as to whether
if

The official answer is (a) for it's concision, but I put (b) on the idea that 'whether or not' is an idiom. So what I'm trying to get my head around is in situations where concision can occur without prejudicing meaning, or an idiom if offered, what trumps what?

Thanks

B.
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Re: SC - idioms vs concision - example below: [#permalink] New post 11 Jul 2012, 00:02
(A) is correct since we are discussing about the possibility of what caused the bubonic plague.
The rule is: use 'whether' when discussing different possibilities. Use 'if' in conditional statements.
Other options are not concise.
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