I'd go with C.

my pick for E

What the sentence is trying to say is the basic needs of cats and examples of the needs are given after the ":". The colon is used to give a list.

The sentence before ":" should be able to stand on its own.

A , D and E are out . D&E show contrast, I dont think any contrast is required.

if we put A there would be two 'and'

I picked C , but I also liked B, which did not sound right to my ear.

I go with C

The problem in B is the phrase ' veterinarian visits '. It means as if there are many types of visits and ' veterinarian visits' is one of them.

neha.patni wrote:The basic needs of the average cat are simple and largely inexpensive: food, water, affection, and shelter, and occasional visits to the veterinarian.

(A) and occasional visits to the veterinarian
(B) with occasional veterinarian visits
(C) with occasional visits to the veterinarian
(D) yet occasionally visiting the veterinarian
(E) but some occasional visits to the veterinarian are needed

OA Later

OA C -

I marked A because shelter with occasional visits to the veterinarian sounds awkward. Can somebody explain this

neha.patni wrote:

neha.patni wrote:The basic needs of the average cat are simple and largely inexpensive: food, water, affection, and shelter, and occasional visits to the veterinarian.

(A) and occasional visits to the veterinarian
(B) with occasional veterinarian visits
(C) with occasional visits to the veterinarian
(D) yet occasionally visiting the veterinarian
(E) but some occasional visits to the veterinarian are needed

OA Later

OA C -

I marked A because shelter with occasional visits to the veterinarian sounds awkward. Can somebody explain this

A is not correct because it makes 'occasional visits to the vet' a part of the list which talks about the simple and inexpensive needs of cat. Since visits to the vet are not necessarily simple and inexpensive, it cannot be preceeded with an 'and'. Also, we can't assume that these visits are expensive either (since that might change the meaning of the sentence), the use of 'with' seems a safer option.

This is just how I interpreted the question and got to C.