Clones

AnjaliOberoi wrote:Almost like clones in their similarity to one another, the cheetah species’ homogeneity makes
them especially vulnerable to disease.

A. the cheetah species’ homogeneity makes them especially vulnerable to disease
B. the cheetah species is especially vulnerable to disease because of its homogeneity
C. the homogeneity of the cheetah species makes it especially vulnerable to disease
D. homogeneity makes members of the cheetah species especially vulnerable to disease
E. members of the cheetah species are especially vulnerable to disease because of their homogeneity

Why the answer is E. I was confused bet the options C and D, pls help

Dear AnjaliOberoi,
I'm happy to help.

This is a classic GMAT comparison question. Comparisons involves parallelism, because we have to compare like to like. We need two terms that are logical equivalents of one another as the two terms of the comparison. When the sentence has the form:
Like A, B ....
The terms A & B are being compared, and they must be logically equivalent to each other. See this blog for more:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-sente ... omparison/

Here, the first term, in the non-underlined section is " ... like clones ..." Clones are individual animals, individual things. The word "clones" is not the name of a group like a species, so the word can be compared to "the cheetah species", and it is not an abstract quality, so it can't be compared to "homogeneity." What exactly are "like" the individual clone animals? Individual members of the cheetah species. We have to compare like to like. That is why (E) has to be the answer.

Does all this make sense?
Mike