The distribution of mass within the core of the Earth,like the mantle that surrounds the core, has been deduced from the orbital behavior of the Earth andthe motions of satellites controlled by the Earth’s gravity.

(A) the mantle that surrounds the core
(B) that within the mantle surrounding the core
(C) that of the mantle surrounding the core
(D) the mantle the core surrounds
(E) the distribution of mass within the mantle that surrounds the core


The contention seems to be between (B) and (C). 'That' is clearly correct in both cases, as it refers to 'the distribution of mass.' The main difference between the two answers is (B) has '...within the mantle' and (C) has 'of the mantle.'

Notice that the non-underlined part has 'the distribution of mass within the core...' There needs to be parallelism here, in the sense that we want to be comparing '...mass within the core...' to 'that within the mantel'. Therefore the answer is (B).

Hope that helps .
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I would go with B.

that within the mantle surrounding the core - that corresponds to the distribution of mass

B it is!!!

comparing distribution of mass of core and mantle

B is the answer.But note that E is also gramatically correct .But B is more concise and hence the answer .
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Marked B because of proper meaning and parallelism if offers with the original sentence.
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A and D incorrectly refer to the earth’s mantle, rather than the distribution of mass within it.
E is very wordy.
C is also wrong, it has a //ism break.

So, B is the right answer.

whats wrong with option e. It is perfectly parallel to the statement

E is perfectly fine in term of parallelism ( though you can argue that “the distribution of mass” is repeated). I think E is wrong because E use “that-clause” to modifies “mantle”. “that-clause” has a restrictive meaning. It can be interpreted as “not all mantles but only the mantles that surround earth core”.

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Raise your hands if you overlooked B and chose C instead
Nice one! I rushed through!

E is wordy, but it also gives the sense that there is also a mantle that doesn't surround the core.
This makes it illogical.

Hence B is the answer