Sentence Correction

Certain gerontologists have reported that the more older people continue to challenge their brains with reading, writing, and other thought-provoking exercises, their cognitive functions are less likely to diminish.

A.Their cognitive functions are less likely to diminish.
B.The less likely are their cognitive functions to be diminished.
C.The less are they likely to have diminished cognitive function.
D.The less likely their cognitive functions will diminish
E.They are less likely to have diminished cognitive function.

[spoiler]OA : D...But i didn't understand why 'B' is not the correct answer.[/spoiler]

Hi,

why is A wrong?.

Their -> refers to old people. subject + verb agreement is good.

A is wrong..becoz of parallism...

"....that the more older people ...the less..."....just prallism..

All options seem to be bad
in D
their brains with reading, writing, and other thought-provoking exercises, their cognitive functions are less likely to diminish.

What does that 'their' refers to in there?

from sentence it can easily mean

the cognitive functions of reading,writing and other exercises are less likely to diminish (not old man)

which is not sense of the sentence.....
so though parallel,i think D has that problem

Stuck up between B and D for a while, but I think D maintains the parallelism in structure and is thus a winner.

I think it should be E.

"continue to challenge..........to have"

vijay_venky wrote:Stuck up between B and D for a while, but I think D maintains the parallelism in structure and is thus a winner.

muralithe1,

got it on paralllism.

their refers to noun closer in the sentence. it is older people

I think cognitive functions to be not correct. It is usually used in estimated to be ...thats why B is wrong.

D seem to reflect correct tense.

kps.

The more normally indicates contrast and is generally followed by the less ... so only C and D need to be considered in C are is not needed as we already have a plural their .. therefore I chose D

Certain gerontologists have reported that the more older people continue to challenge their brains with reading, writing, and other thought-provoking exercises, their cognitive functions are less likely to diminish.

B.The less likely are their cognitive functions to be diminished.
C.The less are they likely to have diminished cognitive function.
D.The less likely their cognitive functions will diminish

the more...the less => A, E OUT


for llelism:
1) The more people (noun)....the less (requires noun) => only D gives that
2) continue to challege (active)....so active preferable => B & C Passive

D ans

IMO D -> parallelism