The decline of the mountain yellow-legged frog

[Skywalker]

The decline of the mountain yellow-legged frog in the high reaches of the Sierra Nevada has become severe enough for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service quite possibly to list it as an endangered species in the near future.

(A) severe enough for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service quite possibly to list it
(B) severe enough so that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service could well list them
(C) severe enough for it quite possibly to be listed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
(D) so severe that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service could well list it
(E) so severe that they could well be listed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service

The answer is D, but isn't there any problem with the pronoun "it" in D? I think the "it" here refers to "The decline".

[Skywalker]

No body?

[RonPurewal]

No body?

hey -- if you do this, you're actually bumping your post to LAST in the folder.
we answer these strictly from oldest to newest... so, if you do this, you're making yours the "newest" again. just fyi.

--

in the problem above, you have a choice between "it" and "them/they".
"frog" is singular, so there's no question which of these is correct -- you need the singular "it".

it should be plain from the context of the sentence that "it" stands for the frog, so there's no issue of ambiguity.