first of all, you can use the correct idiom 'more likely to be found ... than ...' to eliminate choices c, d, e right away. you can't write 'more likely ... as opposed to ...' or 'more likely ... instead of ...'; both of those are unidiomatic, and therefore incorrect, 100% of the time.

so now it's down to a versus b. (choices c, d, e certainly have their share of other issues, including the bad parallelism in choice d, the bad usage of 'including' with the list of singular nouns in choice c, and the lack of referent for 'it' in choice e)

to decide, look no further than the 'which' in choice a, which is followed by the verb 'exposes'. that verb is singular, indicating that 'which' must refer to something singular - and there are no singular nouns in that part of the sentence at all. ('whether they be' is also unnecessarily wordy.)

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your response.

You mentioned that C has other issues - "the bad usage of 'including' with the list of singular nouns".

I didn't quite get your point. If you don't mind, could you elaborate on the usage of "including" with the list of singular nouns.

Is it valid to use "whether" to refer to a list of items such as "whether X, Y or Z"?

Thanks in advance :)

Hi Ron,

Apologies for posing the question in image format. Find below the question in correct text format
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Shipwrecks are more likely to be found undisturbed at great depths than in shallow coastal waters, which exposes archaeological remains to turbulence and makes them accessible to anyone in scuba gear, whether they be archaeologist, treasure hunter, or sport diver.

A) than in shallow coastal waters, which exposes archaeological remains to turbulence and makes them accessible to anyone in scuba gear, whether they be
>> which here refers to waters incorrectly

B) than in shallow coastal waters, where archaeological remains are exposed to turbulence and are accessible to anyone in scuba gear, whether
>>where here refers to waters incorrectly

C) as opposed to shallow waters along the coast, where archaelogical remains are exposed to turbulence and accessible to anyone in scuba gear, including
D) instead of in shallow waters along the coast, which exposes archaeological remains to turbulence and making them accessible to anyone in scuba gear, including an
>> which incorrectly refers to coast. it is not the coast that exposes the remaings to turbulence.

E) instead of shallow coastal waters, because it exposes archaeological remains to turbulence and makes them accessible to anyone in scuba gear, whether
>> it ?

when you use the word 'including', you have to use it was singular/plural according to the quantities of whatever it refers to. in this case, there is clearly more than one archaeologist / treasure hunter / sport diver, so you'd have to say '...including archaeologists, treasure hunters, and sport divers'.

as for your last question, yes, that construction involving 'whether' is valid.