Bunuel
One dangerous consequence of high-altitude climbing occurs when the blood-brain barrier is weakened such that intravascular proteins and fluids are able to penetrate into the cerebral parenchymal extracellular space that is the result of the body’s
trying to deal with the severe lack of oxygen facing it.A. trying to deal with the severe lack of oxygen facing it.
B. trying to face and deal with the severe lack of oxygen.
C. attempt to deal with the severe lack of oxygen.
D. attempt to try to deal with the severe lack of oxygen facing it.
E. attempt to try and deal with the severe lack of oxygen.
OFFICIAL SOLUTION:
If you chose (A), since “body’s” is in its possessive form, what follows must be a noun, not a verb “trying.”
If you chose (B), you may have been swayed by the parallelism of “face” and “deal” but remember that the possessive “body’s” must be followed by a noun. The “body” cannot possess a progressive verb. Furthermore, “deal with” and “face” convey the same meaning.
(C) is the correct response. This choice provides a noun for the possessive “body’s” and eliminates the redundancy created by the use of both “deal with” and “face” in the original sentence.
If you chose (D), while “attempt” provides a correct possessive noun for “body’s” the phrase “attempt to try to deal” is unnecessarily wordy and redundant.
If you chose (E), “attempt to try and deal” is unnecessarily redundant. Remember that “to attempt” and “to try” are synonyms.