Brutal SC #19

[jangojess]

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,300 years ago and extending for more than 33 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

(A) extending
(B) extends
(C) extended
(D) it extended
(E) is extending

OA : A

[BTGmoderatorRO]

Option A.
'extending for more than' the usage of the present participle 'extending' here is to establish the continuous action of the 'rootlike tentacles'. Therefore, this is the correct answer.

Option B.
extends' this does not follow parallelism in its usage, that is, it as not proper to say 'extends for more than 33acres in the soil'

Option C.
Extended. This is a past tense form to illustrate what happens in the past but according to the writer, he was talking about a discovery 'a living organism on Earth' so it, therefore, means that the animal is still on earth not extinct and does require a past tense verb to describe.

Option D.
This option suffers a similar fate as option c above only that it was painted with an additional information of 'it' but mind you that does not change the fact the fact that it is still wrong.This option is incorrect.

Option E.
'and is extending'? how correct is this?

Well, this option is incorrect because it does not follow parallelism and the awkward use of 'is'