SC: Elephants

Question

Please explain:

Australian embryologists have found evidence  that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolved  as a kind of snorkel. 

(a) same
(b) that has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving 
(c)suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolving 
(d) to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolving 
(e) to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved

govinam · Answer

My reasoning between C and E:

In C, the use of evolving is incorrect.
E corrects the parallel inconsistency in the original.

Is this an accurate assessment? thanks.

nitinlgb · Answer

Will go with A. 

B - wrong tense. 
C,D - "had Suggested" does not seem right.

Raghavender · Answer

A has the prob of "is descended" which is wrong

Going for B

Wat is the OA

mahesh004 · Answer

A and B are awkward. A uses that unnecessarily. B has the last part of the sentence 'its trunk evolving from ...' in awkward fashion.

C and D are out. They use past perfect that doesn't make sense.

So E is the answer. It maintains parallel structure and avoids past perfect tense.

govinam · Answer

OA is E

sangarelli · Answer

I am not entirely convinced with (E).
Could someone please explain it to me.

GMATT73 · Answer

Sure, 

1. suggest that...and that ... is parallel
2. "its" needs to be rephrased in the second half of the sentence to clarify which animal's trunk evolved as a snorkel.

baski6 · Answer

I liked A initially but after Matt explanation going towards E.

londonluddite · Answer

E for me. 

The elephant is descended is grammatically correct.

e.g. 
The common cat is descended from an ameoba.
The fiat money system is descended from the gold standard.

yogeshsheth · Answer

good to know that is descended is grammatically correct.

Juaz · Answer

E is the best choice here. Though "decended is" sounds lill wierd.

ugo_castelo · Answer

I'd prefer A if the second tense had "that" to ensure //
option "E" with "to suggest" seems to change the meaning of the original sentence, since "to" adds the idea of purpose of "suggest"

asaf · Answer

IMHO, b,c, d are out because of the use of 'evolving'.
Now A or E?
For A: evidence that suggests that ... bit odd.
E.

SC: Elephants

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