Select the most appropriate option to substitute the highlighted part of the given sentence. If there is no need to substitute it, select ‘No substitution’:
As the rulers of the planet, humans like to think that it is the largest creatures that will emerge victorious from the struggle for survival.

Correct option is D

The correct substitution for the highlighted part is ‘they are the largest creatures’ to make the sentence grammatically and contextually correct.
Explanation:
1. The pronoun ‘it’ in the highlighted part is incorrectly used because the subject of the sentence, ‘humans,’ is plural. A plural pronoun like ‘they’ should replace ‘it.’
2. ‘The largest creatures’ is correctly used to indicate the superlative degree of size (largest), and no changes are required to the adjective phrase itself.
3. Correct Sentence:
4. As the rulers of the planet, humans like to think that they are the largest creatures that will emerge victorious from the struggle for survival.
Grammatical Rule Involved:
1. Pronoun Agreement: Pronouns must agree in number (singular/plural) with their antecedents. In this sentence, ‘they’ (plural) is required to refer to the plural noun ‘humans.’
2. Superlative Degree of Adjectives: When comparing more than two, the superlative form (e.g., largest) must be used.
Why Other Options are Incorrect:
· (a) No substitution: Incorrect because ‘it’ is singular, which does not agree with the plural subject ‘humans.’
· (b) it is the most large creatures: Incorrect because ‘most large’ is grammatically incorrect. The correct superlative form is ‘largest.’
· (c) they are a largest creature: Incorrect because ‘a’ is singular and does not agree with the plural noun ‘creatures.’
Thus, the correct answer is (d).