Sentence Correction

To this day, researchers and theorists debate whether bubonic plague caused The Black Death, a pandemic that swept the world in the middle of the fourteenth century.

A. whether
B. whether or not
C. about whether
D. as to whether
E. if

imo D

Debate about or Debate over

IMO C

[email protected] wrote:To this day, researchers and theorists debate whether bubonic plague caused The Black Death, a pandemic that swept the world in the middle of the fourteenth century.

A. whether
B. whether or not
C. about whether
D. as to whether
E. if

if is used when a hypothetical condition is to be presented.
here whether is correct to use - when two alternatives are presented and one is to choose.

whether...or not, whether or not in this sentence is correct idiom.
Hence B.

beat_gmat_09 wrote:

[email protected] wrote:To this day, researchers and theorists debate whether bubonic plague caused The Black Death, a pandemic that swept the world in the middle of the fourteenth century.

A. whether
B. whether or not
C. about whether
D. as to whether
E. if

if is used when a hypothetical condition is to be presented.
here whether is correct to use - when two alternatives are presented and one is to choose.

whether...or not, whether or not in this sentence is correct idiom.
Hence B.

If I am correct, "whether or not" is always wrong in GMAT. Only "whether" is correct usage.

Idiom
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/debate

A. whether -> Correct
B. whether or not
C. about whether -> Incorrect use
D. as to whether -> Incorrect use
E. if -> Incorrect use

+1 for A

+1 for A.........wats the OA

Debate about is unidiomatic
the correct form as sited above is debate with someone about something
IMO A

OA is option A.

But, I am still not clear why not we can use 'if' here or why we should use 'whether' here.
Could anyone help please ?

[email protected] wrote:OA is option A.

But, I am still not clear why not we can use 'if' here or why we should use 'whether' here.
Could anyone help please ?

if is used when a hypothetical condition is to be presented.
here whether is correct to use - when two alternatives are presented and one is to choose.

Thanks for the correct idiom guys.

[email protected] wrote:OA is option A.

But, I am still not clear why not we can use 'if' here or why we should use 'whether' here.
Could anyone help please ?

If reserved for conditional and hypothetical sentence. Some example, you can see in below image.




Whether used in case you have option to select.

I will get admission in good MBA school whether my GMAT score is below 700 or above 700.
Do you know whether he's coming?
Do you know whether he's coming or not ? -> redundant. This is the reason that A is better than B.