A team of Chinese and Dutch mathematicians recently formulated a model for predicting emigration rates of one species depending on both the local population density of another species and the relationship (competitive, predator-prey, or activator-inhibitor) between the two species.
A. for predicting emigration rates of
B. to predict emigration rates of at least
C. to predict emigration rates ofD. that predict emigration rates of
E. that predict rates of emigration of at least
This is a type of question where the difference is very subtle if we have not done our homework(I mean study )
lets get to it then,it is clear that adding 'at least' clearly
alters the original meaning of the sentence so we do a 2/3 split and get rid of B and E.
Now is the difficult part, in option
D 'that predict' can logically only refer to the model and not the team(
meaning error), and then if we look we find that
model is singular and the verb- predict should be singular as well (predicts) to be grammatically correct.therefor strike out D.
now we are left with A and C, lets do slash and burn!(remove everything that does not matter)
A team - recently formulated - a model -
to predict or
for predicting?
in my opinion 'to predict' is the correct choice.
C is the correct answer.