The United States will be affected by whether Taiwan develops a closer

'it' in (D) has no reference and is therefore ambiguous. (B), (C) and (E) are out because of 'wheter or not' which is wordy. (A) is the best! cheers

B,C is nonscence.
D,E -> 'it' has no proper precedent

A should be the best choice.

Vote for A.

In D - X or Y

X - will develop
Y - preserves

hence not parallel

A. The United States will be affected by whether Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo,

B. Whether or not Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo affecting the United States

C. Whether or not Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or the status quo is preserved, it will affect the United States

D. It affects the United States whether Taiwan will develop a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo

E. It affects the United States whether or not Taiwan will develop a closer relationship with mainland China or preserve the status quo

This is how I thought

B, C & E - Elimibate - whether or not.
D - Verb Tense

Reasons A is correct

The United States will be affected by X
whether Y or Z
Hence A should be the answer.

"whether or not" is not the correct usage - eliminate B, C and E
D has incorrect tense usage - "will develop" and "preserve"
I go with A

OA is indeed "A". I was also confused intially between A and D. But.... vote goes for the "A"

OA is A. However, it is not ||.

whether Taiwan ... or preserves...

Could anybody explain?
Thanks

Its parallel. Taiwan develops ..or...preserves . Here Or is a parallelism indicator
Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo affecting the United States

OR

Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or Taiwanpreserves the status quo affecting the United States

In order to be ||, what comes after "whether" (a noun- Taiwan) should be the same what comes after the "or" (is not a noun, but a verb - preserves).

For me, the || structure should be: whether Taiwan develops XXX or it preserves YYY.

Please, thougths on that.
Thanks in advance!

Whether or not not required...

Starting the sentence with IT makes D ambiguos so

A is the answer

The United States will be affected by whether Taiwan ( develops a closer relationship with mainland China or
preserves the status quo )

hope if u see this ---then u will realize that parallel structure is maintained .

thanks
kudos appreciated

B. Whether or not Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo affecting the United States
[Grammatically incorrect. There is no conjugated verb in the main clause so the resulting statement is a fragment. Also, whether or not is considered stylistically redundant.]

C. Whether or not Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or the status quo is preserved, it will affect the United States.
[Grammatically incorrect. There is a parallelism error. develops a closer relationship and status quo is preserved are not parallel and they should be]

D. It affects the United States whether Taiwan will develop a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo.
[Grammatically incorrect. Again, the two parts of or are not parallel, they are in different parts of speech].

D. It affects the United States whether or not Taiwan will develop a closer relationship with mainland China or preserve the status quo
[Again the same error. Using It in the first part of the sentence is correct.]

So, the answer is A

D and E are not wrong because of E having no antecedent. It is used as an introductory phrase, no need for antecedent.

The only difference between A and D is D uses IT which has no reference. It is pronoun error. For pronoun to be present in the sentence, noun or antecedent must be present. Noun/Antecedent is necessary condition. In this way only A conveys non-ambiguous meaning.
Straight A.

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