Dear Friends,
Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
daagh wrote:
The Mars Exploration Program established that the main scientific goals of the MSL mission are to help determine whether or not Mars could ever have supported life, as well as determining the role of water, and to study the climate and geology of Mars.
A. The Mars Exploration Program established that the main scientific goals of the MSL mission are to help determine whether or not Mars could ever have supported life, as well as determining the role of water, and to study the climate and geology of Mars.
B. The Mars Exploration Program established that the main scientific goals of the MSL mission are to help determine whether Mars could ever have supported life, as well as to determine the role of water, and to study the climate and geology of Mars.
C. As established by the Mars Exploration Program, the main scientific goals of the MSL mission are to help determine whether Mars could ever have supported life, as well as determining the role of water, and to study the climate and geology of Mars.
D. As established by the Mars Exploration Program, the main scientific goals of the MSL mission are to help to determine whether Mars could ever have supported life, as well as determining the role of water, and to study the climate and geology of Mars
E. As established by the Mars Exploration Program, the main scientific goals of the MSL mission is to help determine whether Mars could ever have supported life, as well as determining the role of water, and to study the climate and geology of Mars.
Choice A: In Option A, we see a parallelism error between "to help determine", "to study" and "as well as determining"; remember, lists must be parallel. Furthermore, Option A utilizes the redundant and unidiomatic phrase "whether or not"; the correct form of this phrase is "whether". Thus, Option A is incorrect.
Choice B: Option B maintains parallelism, subject-verb agreement, and proper idiom usage. Thus, Option B is correct.
Choice C: Option C repeats the parallelism error found in Option A. Thus, Option C is incorrect.
Choice D: Option D repeats the parallelism error found in Options A and C. Furthermore, the phrase "to help to determine" is needlessly wordy. Thus, Option D is incorrect.
Choice E: Option E repeats the parallelism error found in Options A, C, and D and features a subject-verb disagreement between "goals" and "is". Thus, Option E is incorrect.
Hence, C is the best answer choice.Is c the correct answer or b please clarify it is confusing from your post
Also the reason I have mentioned from Ron can that be used as daggh mentioned about a the dictionary use which I assume is not correctly used in Gmat style question
To understand the concept of “If v/s Whether on GMAT”, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):
All the best!
Experts' Global Team