Sentence Correction

Antarctica receives more solar radiation than does any other place on Earth, yet the temperatures are so cold and the ice cap is reflective, so that little polar ice melts during the summer; otherwise, the water levels of the oceans would rise 250 feet and engulf most of the world's great cities.

A. is reflective, so that little polar ice melts during the summer; otherwise,
B. is so reflective that little of the polar ice melts during the summer; were it to do so,
C. so reflective that little polar ice melts during the summer, or else
D. reflective, so that little of the polar ice melts during the summer, or
E. reflects so that little of the polar ice melts during the summer; if it did

how to choose between b and c

Very Easy: or else is redundant. Or/Else independently convey the meaning of an alternative option. What the hell the two are doing simultaneously in c.

Hi Vaibhav,
B option is wordy. hence i would choose C.
That's what i think.

Gurus, please reply?

Very Easy: or else is redundant. Or/Else independently convey the meaning of an alternative option. What the hell the two are doing simultaneously in c.

To maintain the parallelism "is" is needed. emperatures are ..... ice cap is...

maihuna wrote:Very Easy: or else is redundant. Or/Else independently convey the meaning of an alternative option. What the hell the two are doing simultaneously in c.

I eliminated C on the basis of requirement of 'is'??

Thanks

vaibhav.iit2002 wrote:

maihuna wrote:Very Easy: or else is redundant. Or/Else independently convey the meaning of an alternative option. What the hell the two are doing simultaneously in c.

Can we explain in following manner-

we cannot omit 'is' as it says - "temperatures are so cold and the ice cap is so reflective"

if we remove 'is', sentence will become "temperatures are so cold and the ice cap [are] so reflective"

but we need 'is' not 'are' so C is wrong
??

Why, do you think or else is permitted? Do you think ellipsis is allowed here...why? Why at the first place two statements added with and will share a common verb? Ellipsis are permitted only in certain cases....and I m not sure if they are here, even if they are that doesn't make sense as you pointed, so inspite of doing PhD I will do PoE and happily go for B.

ANother good think B has is the Mood subjunctive, representing an hypothetical situation using subjunctive mood...were it...

I think it's C.

OA is B. I got OA from another forum.