Can someone explain this TC question?

GRE Verbal Problem Solving
1

(This problem is from Big Book pg. 491)

  1. The chances that a species will ----- are reduced if any vital function is restricted to a single kind of organ; ------- by itself possesses an enormous survival advantage.

  2. (A) degenerate…complexity

  3. (B) expire . . size

  4. © disappear . . variety

  5. (D) flourish…symmetry

  6. (E) persist. .redundancy

My process: I ignored the answer choices and then concluded that this sentence is a support because of the semicolon. In the 1st blank I put that it could either be ‘survive’ or ‘die’ and then second blank would be either ‘variety’ (if first blank is survive) or ‘single function’ (if first blank is die). Correct answer is E, but why is 'redundancy 'the second blank?? I understand why persist works for first blank, but I don’t get the meaning of redundancy in this context.

2

You cracked the logic very well. Therefore, you can conclude that all the other answer choices are not valid. “Redundancy” does fit here because if a vital function is covered by different organs, one specific organ of these is thus not absolutely essential and therefore “redundant”.

2 Likes
3

If someone is being redundant they are repeating the same thing over and over again. If vital functions are “redundant,” they are appearing over and over again (or at least more than once)