Stuck on this SC. Please help.

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Stuck on this SC. Please help.

by aman88 » Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:28 am
Q. Responding to the public's fascination with-and sometimes undue alarm over-possible threats from asteroids, a scale developed by astronomers rates the likelihood that a particular asteroid or comet may collide with Earth.

A. a scale developed by astronomers rates the likelihood that a particular asteroid or comet may
B. a scale that astronomers have developed rates how likely it is for a particular asteroid or comet to
C. astronomers have developed a scale to rate how likely a particular asteroid or comet will be to
D. astronomers have developed a scale for rating the likelihood that a particular asteroid or comet will
E. astronomers have developed a scale that rates the likelihood of a particular asteroid or comet that may.

OA C

Please help on this one. I checked the other posts on this SC Q but the post is severely confusing.
I am stuck on C,D,E.

Thanks.
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Thu Dec 13, 2012 8:45 am
D. likelihood that should be likelihood of (for rating is also off)
E. that rates implies that the scale itself is doing the rating when the scale is in fact used to do something.
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by The Iceman » Thu Dec 13, 2012 11:35 am
I beg to disagree with the OA provided.

What bothers me in C is the construction "likely ... will be to". :-(

D seems the best among the provided options. "likelihood that ... x will happen", is the same as saying "probability that ... x will happen"

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by aman88 » Fri Dec 14, 2012 6:46 am
@Iceman: That is the same thing that set me thinking too and I striked out C. But Jim's absolutely right. Likelihood of is more idiomatic that likelihood that. I guess that's the difference between experts and us! :)

Thanks.

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