The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much res

[sambusinessgroup]

The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
A. in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting
B. in addition to its possibilities to prevent or inhibit
C. besides the possibility that it prevents and inhibits
D. besides the possible preventing and inhibiting of
E. besides possibly preventing or inhibiting.

OA is E.

My question is: In choices A, B and C, what it refers to "tea" or "Research". I know it can't refer to health benefits as it is plural.

Please explain.

[victorgsiu]

i believe your question points to the answer. what "its" refers to is ambiguous, therefore A, B, and C can be crossed out.

D - "the possible preventing" is awkward.

E - uses the form besides x, y. this is correct.

[RonPurewal]

My question is: In choices A, B and C, what it refers to "tea" or "Research". I know it can't refer to health benefits as it is plural.

when you consider possible antecedents for a pronoun, you should always narrow your search down to legitimate antecedents first. i.e., you shouldn't even bother to think about such antecedents as "health benefits", because that makes NO sense at all in context.

in other words:
takeaway:
BEFORE you start going into any sort of complicated thought process about ambiguous pronouns, etc., you should FIRST FIND THE INTENDED ANTECEDENT of the pronoun in question.
if that INTENDED antecedent - i.e., the one that's clear from context - doesn't work grammatically, then you're done; the choice is wrong.

if you read the context of the sentence, it's clear that the INTENDED antecedent here is "the brewed leaves of camellia sinensis".
that's plural.
"it" is singular.
no match.
done.

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

Can any instructor explain why A, B, C and D are wrong?
Can "it" refer to the subject in the next clause, that is "the brewed leaves"?

[freshy_cutie]

Would anyone please explain the differences between choice E and D?

[RonPurewal]

Can any instructor explain why A, B, C and D are wrong?

(a) and (b) use "possibility" unidiomatically.
there are two possible idioms:
the possibility that NOUN VERB
the possibility of NOUN

(a), (b), (c) contain an incorrect "it".

(d) "the possible VERBing" is inferior to "possibly VERBing".
"and" doesn't make sense in context (it makes it seem as though the two effects must occur together); "or" makes more sense.

Can "it" refer to the subject in the next clause, that is "the brewed leaves"?

no.
"it" is singular; "leaves" is plural.

[RonPurewal]

Would anyone please explain the differences between choice E and D?

see above

[shri312]

Can any instructor explain why A, B, C and D are wrong?
Can "it" refer to the subject in the next clause, that is "the brewed leaves"?

Can it refer to the subject in the next clause if it is written as " the brewed leaf"?

Thank you,

[RonPurewal]

Can any instructor explain why A, B, C and D are wrong?
Can "it" refer to the subject in the next clause, that is "the brewed leaves"?

Can it refer to the subject in the next clause if it is written as " the brewed leaf"?

Thank you,

sure, because then you'd have a match (singular/singular).

[thanghnvn]

Ron, members, pls, help

in a and b, "in addition to possibility " needs a parallel noun. Because there is no such a noun, a and b are wrong

in c and d, " besides the ...." need a parallel noun. Because there is no such a noun, c and d are wrong.

"in addition to" and " besides" is preposition the noun after them needs a parallel noun.

Is my thinking correct? , pls, explain.

[thanghnvn]

in the previous posting, I do not make clear.

I mean

in c and d, the phrase following the "besides" is used as a nound, namely "possibility" and " preventing and inhibiting and so, we need another noun which is parallel with those nouns. We do not have a noun parallel with the noun following "besides", we delete a,b,c,d.

the case is similar in a and b.

in E, " preventing and inhibiting" are used as verbal doing which is adverb modifying the main clause- " leave also play a role...".

"besides" in E is adverb modifying "inhibiting and preventing"

Ron, members, pls, help, is my thinking correct ?

[thanghnvn]

Sory for posting 3 times in this thread.

I do not understand grammatical feature of "besides" in correct answer E.

in E, "besides" can be preposition only. "besides" in E means "in addition to". the object of "besides" is "preventing". We needs a noun in the last part of sentence- the leaves play an important role- to be parallel with "preventing".

the similar case is following:

besides gmat, I learn English. "gmat" and English are compared.

I think the following is correct

besides learning gmat, I take reading newyorktimes. "learning" is parallel with "reading"

in E, I do not see the parallel. PLs, help me.

HELP ME.

[RonPurewal]

Ron, members, pls, help

in a and b, "in addition to possibility " needs a parallel noun. Because there is no such a noun, a and b are wrong

in c and d, " besides the ...." need a parallel noun. Because there is no such a noun, c and d are wrong.

"in addition to" and " besides" is preposition the noun after them needs a parallel noun.

Is my thinking correct? , pls, explain.

this seems correct.

[RonPurewal]

in E, "besides" can be preposition only.

yes, "besides" is a preposition.

besides gmat, I learn English. "gmat" and English are compared.

correct

I think the following is correct

besides learning gmat, I take reading newyorktimes. "learning" is parallel with "reading"

well, if you have besides + verbING, then you don't necessarily have to have this exact structure in the other half of the sentence -- in fact, if you need a verb, then you can't have this structure in the other half (because "ing" constructions by themselves are not verbs).
for instance:
besides running, i also swim and ride a bike.
--> this is correct; it's as good as the parallelism is going to get. you can't say "besides run" (not idiomatic -- "besides" has to be followed by something that plays the role of a noun, which is why a gerund works), and you can't say "i running". so, this parallelism is not perfect, but you can't really improve upon it.

PLs, help me.

HELP ME.

i'll thank you to stop making DEMANDS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. on the internet, capital letters are the equivalent of yelling, which is extremely rude and unprofessional.

[thanghnvn]

Thank you Ron, I will not use capital letters any more.

pls, help
you said that

(d) "the possible VERBing" is inferior to "possibly VERBing".
"and" doesn't make sense in context (it makes it seem as though the two effects must occur together); "or" makes more sense.

I understand that "and" is wrong

but I do not understand why

the possible verbing is inferiou to possibly verbing

pls, explain, Manhantan experts, members.