Sentence Correction

16. A number of linguists contend that all of the thousands of languages spoken by the world's five billion people can be traced back to a common root language.

(A) that all of the thousands of languages spoken by the world's five billion people can be traced
(B) that the world's five billion people speak thousands of languages of which all can be traced
(C) the world's five billion people speak thousands of languages which are all traceable
(D) all of the thousands of languages spoken by the world's five billion people to be traceable
(E) the ability to trace all of the thousands of languages that are spoken by the world's five billion people


answer A

I would choose A

"contend is a verb that must be followed by "that"

Therefore you are down to A and B

I think B takes the focus off of languages and puts it on the 5 billion people. I don't think this change in meaning is justified. Choose A

Also, all of the questions you have posted have been discussed in this forum recently. Use the search button to find them instead of making new threads. Thanks.

IMO (A)..

sanjayism wrote:16. A number of linguists contend that all of the thousands of languages spoken by the world's five billion people can be traced back to a common root language.

(A) that all of the thousands of languages spoken by the world's five billion people can be traced
(B) that the world's five billion people speak thousands of languages of which all can be traced
(C) the world's five billion people speak thousands of languages which are all traceable
(D) all of the thousands of languages spoken by the world's five billion people to be traceable
(E) the ability to trace all of the thousands of languages that are spoken by the world's five billion people

answer A

(A) is correct

(B) n (C) are out because "of which all" is wrong

(D) violates the idiom "contend that"

(E) changes the meaning of the sentence. Linguists' do contend that languages can be traced back to a common root but they never claim that they have an ability of doing so.