Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea

Hello, Tanchat. Sure, you can and should use other considerations if you are less certain about one. How about we put the question in front of us for reference?


Here, we can look at equipped for versus equipped to, and we can also consider the end, their path versus their paths. I might not use the latter to make a hard elimination, but the reference to a singular obstacle makes me think of a single path, not more than one, so I would harbor a doubt about answer choices (C) and (D). As luck would have it, (A) and (E) are the only two that use equipped for. You can see this idiomatic usage in phrases such as equipped for battle, but how, exactly, does someone equip for facing something? If nothing else, this should mark another serious doubt. The verb tense in (B) may prove confusing at first glance, but you should appreciate that someone in the present could be commenting on these human beings from the past, so appear is justified, and some past tense conjugation makes sense to describe the Neanderthals in their own time—they were (not are) equipped to face just about any obstacle. Note that equipped is not a complete verb without some form of to be here: it is just the latter half. The sentence is not describing Neanderthals equipping spears or anything. Rather, they were equipped for some challenge.

It is okay to be unsure about certain differences between answer choices, but you always want to give yourself an out by looking for an issue that you are comfortable working with. That said, this is a challenging question for a reason. Learn what you can from it before you move on.

Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew