Scientists have identified an asteroid, 2000 BF19, that is about half a mile wide and, if it strikes Earth, it can do

[BTGmoderatorDC]

Scientists have identified an asteroid, 2000 BF19, that is about half a mile wide and, if it strikes Earth, it can do tremendous damage to part of the planet but probably not cause planetwide destruction.


A. and, if it strikes Earth, it can do tremendous damage to part of the planet but

B. and, if it would strike Earth, part of the planet could experience a tremendous amount of damage but it would

C. and that, if it were to strike Earth, could do tremendous damage to part of the planet but would

D. and that, if Earth is struck by it, can do part of the planet tremendous damage, but it would

E. and that, if it strikes Earth, it could experience a tremendous amount of damage but


OA C

Source: GMAT Prep

[deloitte247]

This sentence has two issues; the parallelism issue and the issue between the two clauses.

Option A - Incorrect
'That' is supposed to show parallelism in the sentence. But it is absent here; therefore, it is wrong.

Option B - Incorrect
There is an incorrect use of 'would' and could'. Both words cannot be used in the 'if' part of the sentence.

Option C - Correct
This sentence is correct because it shows the correct parallelism.

Option D - Incorrect
The sudden change from active voice to passive voice makes the sentence seems awkward.

Option E - Incorrect
There is a pronoun ambiguity here. The pronoun 'it' seems to refer to the asteroid instead of referring to earth.