The average weight gain for babies born in the United States

the term 'child weight gain' is really awkward. It's apparent the passage is pointing to the child's weight gain compared to what is desirable. However, E makes it like a technical term of some sort.

really its between A and E....

so in A what is its refering to child, the weight gain?

E is better more concise...

I'll rework this one again.

(A) - lacks clarity. It seems most of us agree to this.

(B) and (D) both changes the meaning. It suggests that for a child to be deemed unerweight, he or she must weigh in at 13.5 pounds after a month

(C) - Ruled out. 'was' is the wrong tense as we're dealing with a matter of present.

(E) is the best choice. (although I am still adamant the term child weight gain is awkward)

it modifies the pronoun[i] the child weight gain, thus B, C and E left.
For B, I think the if clause should be " a child weighing....." as it sounds more logical . If we say "if its weight gain has been below average" , it sounds like the child's weight must exactly increase to 13.5 pounds.
C is out due to wrong tense of "be"
E is my choice.
[/i]

yes, i agree. but i donot have any choice...... that is the least harmful.

Going with the majority while agreeing with Wilfred's point, E for me!

My apologies for the confusion. The child weight gain should be the child`s weight gain in C. There was a Kanji (Chinese character) after child which I inadvertently deleted and did not replace with the possessive marker `s.

OA is C.

OE:

Spot the Concept Being Tested:
Pronouns: Look for pronouns in the underlined parts.
In this case "it" is used to replace "the weight gain".

Decide on a Fix:
The rule for Pronouns is that the pronoun must be used unambiguously (clearly) to a valid (correct in value) subject.
The pronoun here is used correctly but it is ambiguous in that it could refer to either the "child" or the "month."
We need a version that clarifies this problem.

POE:
Using the Pronoun concept.
Choices A, B, and D all repeat the orginal problem.
Eliminate A, B, and D.

Chunk and Compare:
Compare C and E.
The first difference is "was" in Choice C versus "has been" in Choice E.
"Was" indicates the simple past while "has been" indicates continuous to the present.
Since the gain (or lack thereof) had to have already happened to be measured, it cannot be continuous or present.
Eliminate E.

Reread Sentence With Your Choice and Choose an Answer:
Choose C.

my question to the OE is: why do we have:

if a child weighing 12 pounds at birth weighs 13.5 pounds after one month, the child weight gain was below average

'weighs' and 'was' should agree here in tense, IMO

Going with E
B - "it" reference error
A and D need "if" since the sentence deals with hypothetical situation
C - "was" is the incorrect tense..since it is hypothetical situatin..

my pick was E too
not easy to analyze why E is wrong...the tense seems logical but apparently i was wrong

I actually agree with the OA this time. If sets up a hypothetical statement based on general child weight gain statistics in the US. We can not properly assume, as choice E does by using the present perfect tense, that "the child" is living.