schumi_gmat wrote:The health benefits of tea have been the subject of much research; in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting some forms of cancer, the brewed leaves of Camellia sinensis may also play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

A. in addition to its possibilities for preventing and inhibiting
B. in addition to its possibilities to prevent or inhibit
C. besides the possibility that it prevents and inhibits
D. besides the possible preventing and inhibiting of
E. besides possibly preventing or inhibiting

[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]

First reduce the options with 3-2 split technique. In this question, there is Pronoun reference error. The subject is "the brewed leaves", which plural whereas in option (A), (B) and (C) pronouns are singular i.e. its, its and it respectively.

Between choice (D) and (E), (D) looks awkward because of word POSSIBLE. Hence choose (E).

Hope this helps...

The Answer should be E

Its a modifier problem and one should also keep in mind the fact that the part of the sentence after the semicolon (;) should stand on its own.

E is correct because 'besides possibly preventing or inhibiting some forms of cancer' modifies 'the brewed leaves of...'

in addition to is wordy.. and can be replaced by besides..

in c and d.. the use of "and" is incorrect.. it should be prevent or inhibit.. coz u can't do both.. only choice left is E.

but why D is wrong?

For one, I think (D) is incorrect because the possible preventing and inhibiting of is using incorrect forms of the words "prevent" and "inhibit". Instead of "preventing" and "inhibiting", use "preventiion" and "inhibition". I think this is more relevant than the issue of using "and" instead of "or" between "preventing" and "inhibiting".

E is concise and idiomatic. D is ungrammatical in stating that ...........besides the possible preventing and inhibiting of . It is better to say prevention and inhibition of but this too would not be parallel with reducing.

D is wrong because " preventing" and "inhibiting" are use as nouns. When used as nouns, they become unclear in refering to "leaves" . They should have "their" so show that they refer to "leaves"

Am I correct", pls, confirm

One question, pls, help me

in E, the correct what is grammatical role of "besides". I do not understand "besides" inhere.

if "besides" is preposition, it need a work parallel with "preventing" and "inhibiting" for example

besides learning english, I take researching grammar.

learning is parallel with researching.

" besides" can not be adverb because it means in addition.

pls, help me.

Ok, so I got it down to D and E. But then I faced an issue. D is awkward, but E changes and to or. I felt that changing and to or was a meaning change and went with D. I have seen other questions say that such a change (and to or and vice versa) can be considered a meaning change. Any tips for picking these out?

Guess time ...ha

Is it because the sentence shortened says?.."besides possibly preventing or inhibiting...the brewed leaves also play a role in reducing". that just works better