The ancient question of the exact difference between plants and animal

Question

The ancient question of the exact difference between plants and animals, which was so complicated with the discovery of microscopic members of both groups, was somewhat side-stepped with the establishment of a third phylum, the Protista,  reserved just for them.

(A) reserved just for them.
(B) consisting only of them.
(C) inhabited only by them.
(D) which includes all microscopic life.
(E) which would have included all microscopic plants and animals.

Source:   Master GMAT  
Difficulty Level:   600

akshayk · Answer

The answer is D, as Prostita consists of all microscopic life.
E is too wordy, and would have included is incorrect. It does include all microscopic life.

My Question is regarding the non-underlined part as the ",which" modifier cannot refer to animals. It should refer to the difference between the 2 species, but it seems like its referring to animals.

SISDIT · Answer

Yup. People often say: blah blah blah ......., which blah blah.. That is spoken English. GMAT loves to test such issue

Sent from my SM-T116NU using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

The ancient question of the exact difference between plants and animals, which was so complicated with the discovery of microscopic members of both groups, was somewhat side-stepped with the establishment of a third phylum, the Protista, reserved just for them.

(A) reserved just for them.  them is ambigous
 (B) consisting only of them.  them is ambigous
 (C) inhabited only by them.  them is ambigous
 (D) which includes all microscopic life.  correct subject pronoun refernce
 (E) which would have included all microscopic plants and animals.  D is better option.

elegantm · Answer

The ancient question of the exact difference between plants and animals, which was so complicated with the discovery of microscopic members of both groups, was somewhat side-stepped with the establishment of a third phylum, the Protista,  reserved just for them. 
(A) reserved just for  them  -  Antecedent of THEM is not ambiguous, but use of Plural pronoun "THEM" for singular antecedent "PHYLUM/PROTISTA" is incorrect. 
(B) consisting only of  them  -  As explained in option A 
(C) inhabited only by  them  -  As explained in option A 
(D) which includes all microscopic life  - CORRECT 
(E) which  would  have included all microscopic plants and animals -  The problem with this option is not WORDINESS, but use of WOULD. It is incorrect to use WOULD for an action that has already happened. Hence Incorrect.

srij13 · Answer

Please explain each of the answer choices.

kapstone1996 · Answer

The pronoun "them" in A,B, & C is too broad and answer E is too wordy and misuses the future perfect of "Would". Leaves you with answer D

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

The correct answer is (D)  . The “them” is unclear, eliminating (A), (B), and (C). (D)’s use of the present tense is acceptable since the classification presumably still does what it was set up to do. (E)’s use of the “would” construction is not acceptable since there is no doubt about what is included.

The ancient question of the exact difference between plants and animal

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The ancient question of the exact difference between plants and animal

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