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As rare as something becomes, be it a baseball card or a musical recording or a postage stamp, the more avidly it is sought by collectors.
(A) As rare as something becomes, be it
(B) As rare as something becomes, whether it is
(C) As something becomes rarer and rarer, like
(D) The rarer something becomes, like
(E) The rarer something becomes, whether it is

This calls paralleled comparison: the more adj (or comparative adj) + clause, the more adj (or comparative adj) + clause.

In this way, only choice (D) and (E) follows this rule: the rarer...., the more avidly.... Between (D) and (E), whether makes the sentence becomes better in the meaning term. "like" in choice (D) cannot be used as the opening term of introducing the examples.
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bdumpala

As rare as something becomes, be it a baseball card or a musical recording or a postage stamp, the more avidly it is sought by collectors.

(A) As rare as something becomes, be it
(B) As rare as something becomes, whether it is
(C) As something becomes rarer and rarer, like
(D) The rarer something becomes, like
(E) The rarer something becomes, whether it is


"like" should not be used to enumerate. Eliminate C and D.
"whether it is" is correct. Eliminate A.
"the rarer something becomes" is correct as it shows movement of becoming more rare "rarer" which is the intended meaning of the sentence: the rarer, the more avidly it is sought...

Answer: E
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As rare as something becomes, be it a baseball card or a musical recording or a postage stamp, the more avidly it is sought by collectors.

(A) As rare as something becomes, be it

(B) As rare as something becomes, whether it is

(C) As something becomes rarer and rarer, like

(D) The rarer something becomes, like

(E) The rarer something becomes, whether it is

C and D are out for using 'like' which is used for comparison. But function of comparison is done by the sentence structure itself. D, may be, is redundant with C being little wordy.
Comparing three option A & B alike and E, E is better for the reason that its structure is better than A & B - the X'er(more X), the more Y...
Besides if we write A as
'The more avidly it is sought by collectors, as rare as something becomes, be it....' the two different colored text don't stand either in parallelism or comparison.
Similarly, in option B
The more avidly it is sought by collectors, as rare as something becomes, whether it is...' the text are not parallel.

Answer E is correct.
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Since when is 'whether' used to introduce a list of examples?
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chrtpmdr Exactly, I was thinking the same.
As far as I know, it can be only used with two possibilities.
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There's nothing in the word "whether" that restricts it to two choices. It is simply used to indicate a distinction among any number of choices. It's simply that when we use it before *one* choice ("I want to know whether you're joining the club"), a yes/no binary is implied. That's why the GMAT considers "whether or not" redundant, even though this usage is very common in everyday English.
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