Under normal circumstances, online classes are ideal for a specific ty

Under normal circumstances, online classes are ideal for a specific type of student, such as people over thirty years of age and employed persons.
(A) people over thirty years of age and employed persons. - of age is redundant
(B) people over thirty and the employed. -employed is imcomplete
(C) the employed or those over the age of thirty. - correct
(D) the employed or students who are over the age of thirty. -students is out of scope
(E) those who have reached thirty years of age and are employed. - awkward

Hi daagh,

In Option C.

C) the employed or those over the age of thirty.

How could Plural "THOSE" refer to singular "STUDENT" ?.

Please assist.

I also have the same query. What does "those" refer to in option C.

Rah
Hi

If you mean to say that the question itself is not sounding good and that it could have been worded better, then I will agree with you.
It could have stated that students such as those employed or those over thirty. But within the given choices, how can we look for something that is not there.

Hi daagh,

Sorry to say, but I didn't get you.
Do you mean as we don't have any better choice, that's why we choose Plural THOSE for singular STUDENT..??
Is it so..?

Please assist.

Rah
That is what I meant. Because this does not seem to be an ideal practice question: if there is a hidden but meaning in using those for a student, I am will gladly take it.

A student can be both thirty years and employed at the same time. This is what the question stem states. How can C be the official answer which states employed OR over age thirty, instead of AND? To me, C is distorting the meaning of the sentence. Shouldn't E be the right answer (among the given choices) even though it is a bit wordy?

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

(Word Order) A quick scanning of the answer choices shows that all of them use almost the same words but written different sequence, indicating that the error, if any, in the given sentence is the use of a wrong word order. When we examine the sentence closely, we can see that there is indeed such an error. The given sentence would imply that two types of students make ideal candidates for online classes; students “over the age of thirty” and students over “employed persons.” While the former phrase makes sense, the latter phrase does not.

Obviously the author wishes to list the two important capabilities of old people as “over the age of thirty” and “employed persons.” So, in order to remove the ambiguity, the phrase “employed persons” (or employed students, the employed, etc.) must be stated first, so that it does not come after the preposition “over.”

So, (A) is wrong

(B) has the same error, and can be eliminated for that reason alone.

(E) implies that there is a single ideal group consisting of people who are both over thirty and employed, instead of two groups meeting one of two criteria. So, (E) is also wrong.

(C) and (D) correct the basic error in the given sentence. The difference between them is in the phrases “the employed or those over..” and “the employed or students who are over.” The former is shorter and more idiomatic, and is the better choice.

So, (C) is the answer.

My gut reaction was C because it just felt better between the two obvious choices C & D, However I ended up choosing answer D purely because a Singular Student wasn't justifying a Plural "those". D has its own error where is mentions students again. So after reading the responses here from others which I don't believe tackle the issue at hand, I think I'm safein concluding that this was a Poor Question.