naren485
Biologists have encountered a new species of giant squid, one that they believe is a type heretofore unknown to science.
A. that they believe is
B. that they believe it to be
C. they believe it is of
D. they believe that is
E. they believe to be of
Even though I agree with the official answer, I do not believe that the pronoun “
that” is incorrect here, as many experts say. One member just eliminates the options with “
that” without an explanation. Another states-“ the non-underlined sentence already has a pronoun ONE,
it is incorrect to use another”; nevertheless, I cannot find that rule anywhere.
As I see it, the pronoun “
one”, which refers to “
a new species”, introduces an absolute phrase; “
one” is then modified by the relative clause “
that they believe to be of a type heretofore unknown to science.”
“
That” refers to “
one”, which in turn refers to “
a new species” – “they believe
this new species to be of…”
So the pronoun “
that” introduces the relative clause and is not incorrect. On the other hand, the pronoun can be omitted because it is not the subject of the relative clause. The fact that we can omit “
that” does not make the choices that use this pronoun wrong.
So we can eliminate A, C, and D because the idiom is incorrect –believe to be.
We eliminate B because the pronoun “
it” is redundant: the pronoun “
it” refers to “
a new species”, but the pronoun “
that” has already replaced this phrase.