While most ecologists believe that the Striped Kangaroo of

Question

While most ecologists believe that the Striped Kangaroo of southern Australia should be added to the Endangered Species List, the World Conservation Union has stated that the kangaroo will be listed   only if it could be proved to be a distinctly different species   from other kangaroos.

A. only if it could be proved to be a distinctly different species
B. only if it is proved to be a different species, distinct
C. if it can only be proved to be a species distinctly different
D. if it was proved to be only a distinct and different species
E. if it could be only proved to be a different species, distinctly

I chose A, but got it wrong; specifically, what is wrong with A?

lagomez · Answer

Take out the pronoun "it" and replace it with "kangaroo"

a. only if the kangaroo could be proved
b. only if the kangaroo is proved to be a different species

In A, we don't want to prove the kangaroo

pranrasvij · Answer

i would like to add here that the other 3 anwser choices C/D/E are not right since "only" has to follow right in the beginning... substituting kangaroo helps too....

gmatbull · Answer

Yes, agreed; C-E are out, for same reason mentioned by Pransasvij.

My contention centers on choices A & B. I'll now try to explain the basis
of elimination (or choice) of either of them.
A: only if it could be proved to be a distinctly different species
 (i) passive -less preferred (if it -kangaroo- COULD BE PROVED...)

Is my second reasoning correct:
 (ii) underlined part not correctly connecting to the non-underlined part; thus, 
 making a wrong comparison:
 "  a distinctly different species   from other kangaroos" should be:
 "a distinctly different species from  that  of other kangaroos"

B: "only if it is proved to be a different species, distinct"
(i) preferred- active (if it -kangaroo- IS PROVED...)

BalakumaranP · Answer

Hi,

I see it like this..

A. only if it could be proved to be a distinctly different species
There is already a condition for proof "only if" present in the sentence so "could be " is redundant.

B. only if it is proved to be a different species, distinct
Redundancy is eliminated here..

dkverma · Answer

B.

Also 'could' can't be used with if.

While most ecologists believe that the Striped Kangaroo of

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