Good qn, I am only convinced with B though it is troubling me. The use of "but" to contrast two part sentences is good. All other looks awful. Any other thoughts. With A, which refers to Rocky Mountains, so wrong.

It's B. It's the best choice.

A) too long and awkward
C) "would seem...would be" is incorrect "would seem... are" is the correct way to phrase this
D) "although" is not a strong enough word to contrast the two statement, makes the sentence ambivalent
E) same as D -- sentence is no longer a contrast; meaning has changed

My Pick is B.
Its the best among all d choices.

A) which refers to rocky mountains which is not correct
C) 'because of their living' is awkward
D) first clause should modify elk. usage of 'it' is ambigious here
E) usage of since doesnt provide contrast.

My pick is also B

Guys: Isnt "it" redundant in the choice B? or am I thinking too much..most of the forums say that the use of "it" (except when it is used as pronoun) is redundant and should be avoided...

Please help.

Thanks

It isn't redundant, it's necessary. Think of it this way -- what if you just deleted 'it' out of the answer choice? 'Make seem' is absolutely incorrect. The usage here is idiomatic -- 'it' refers to the nameless situation of where elks live. It's usually to be found in that expression because there is a nameless situation which is being made to seem a certain way.

Is this helpful?

Thanks Danielle: I still have couple of questions
- Do you agree that in most of the cases "it" is redundant?
- How do I decide that "it" is redundant or not?

I don't agree that in most cases it is redundant -- that seems way too strong a statement. Also I am not sure exactly which usages/situations you are talking about.

General rule: if, as I demonstrated above, you can't delete 'it' without making the sentence wrong or nonsensical, it is essential to the construction and not redundant.

Some examples would go a long way towards fine-tuning this example though -- have any that we can go through together to understand this 'it' situation??

Thanks Danielle..I am sure I read it somewhere...I will look in my notes and surely discuss this further..

Option A. This option in the first clause does not create a counterbalance that would be repelled by the second clause, so, therefore, it does not fully give a perfect type of answer.

Option B.
This is the correct answer.this option created a first clause that needs to be counterbalanced in the second clause. That is, the first clause is a fact that stand and the second starting with ' but' gives a reason why it should not be.

Option C.
'would seem' here is incorrect.Its usage contradicts the sentence. Thus, this option is correct.

Option D.
'Now living...' this is not a perfect intro to the sentence, also the use of although as a 'separater' here is improper, 'but' would have been better.

Option E.
'since' the use of 'since' does not make the sentence contrast each other therefore this option is wrong