united states & taiwan

[abhasjha]

The United States will be affected by whether Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo, since the island nation is the United States’ seventh-largest trading partner.

A. The United States will be affected by whether Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo

B. Whether or not Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo affecting the United States

C. Whether or not Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or the status quo is preserved, it will affect the United States

D. It affects the United States whether Taiwan will develop a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo

E. It affects the United States whether or not Taiwan will develop a closer relationship with mainland China or preserve the status quo

[sunny.jain]

Clear A is winner here.

Whenever u use whether, "Not" in inherent.
So B,C and E are out.

A maintain parallelism as well.

[abhasjha]

IN A -
"The United States will be affected by whether Taiwan develops "

Is the language not passive?

[RonPurewal]

Clear A is winner here.

Whenever u use whether, "Not" in inherent.
So B,C and E are out.

A maintain parallelism as well.

good points.

in other words, "whether or not" is redundant. if you see a split in which some choices say "whether" and other choices say "whether or not", you should pick a choice that just says "whether".

we can eliminate (d) because of the lack of parallelism between the verbs describing taiwan's 2 options.
whether Taiwan will develop a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo
since these verbs are describing two options between which taiwan must choose, they MUST appear in the same tense (parallel).
they don't. hence wrong.

[RonPurewal]

IN A -
"The United States will be affected by whether Taiwan develops "

Is the language not passive?

yes, this is the passive voice.

and...?

(if you are laboring under the misconception that "the passive voice is always wrong", that is one misconception that you should rid yourself of RIGHT NOW.)

[tankobe]

Is it OK in D and E?

I know it can refer to an that-subcouse and ifinitive :
It is adj that....
It is adj to do sth
i don't know whether it can refer to a whether-subclause.

Ron, can you explain the other contexts, expect for referring to that-subcouse and ifinitive ,and NOUN, in which we can use the it .

stephen

[RonPurewal]

Is it OK in D and E?

I know it can refer to an that-subcouse and ifinitive :
It is adj that....
It is adj to do sth
i don't know whether it can refer to a whether-subclause.

Ron, can you explain the other contexts, expect for referring to that-subcouse and ifinitive ,and NOUN, in which we can use the it .

stephen

i think that this construction is ok with "whether". for instance, i believe that
it is unclear whether the judge will allow the defendant to speak again
is a correct sentence.

off the top of my head i can't think of any other instances that aren't in your list. if you can find any, please post them.

[eggpain24]

HI，ron

I am also wondering an additional error in choice "D,E"

it appears to serve as a placeholder （subject for “that clause“ or “infinitive”）

It is interesting to read a book
It is important that we are all happy

but it cannot be a placeholder for “whether clause”. am I right？

also，If it were not to be a placeholder，”it“ suffers from lack of antecedent.

Thanks！