whether/or的平行：
如果whether/or表示要么/要么，则whether和or各自连接的内容要平行；如果whether/or表示是否/或者是否，则or作为并列连词可以省略内容，只要有内容与or接的内容平行就可以。
R: Taiwan will whether develop a closer relationship with mainland China or preserve the status quo, depending on the will of the USA.
R: Whether Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo will affect the USA.

whether是个从属连词，表是否；or是并列连词。A可以扩充为：
The United States will be affected by whether Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or (whether Taiwan) preserves the status quo
whether sb do sth or not=whether sb do sth or sb does't do that thing，他会做还是不会做

B错在affecting是定语或独立主格，主句没有谓语动词
D/E错在will，whether类似于if，应该用一般现在时

by是介词，后面+名词
affected by whether Taiwan develops a closer relationship with mainland China or preserves the status quo，这里whether A or B是从属连词+从句作名词，表某件事，作事实主语
又如：whether or not he will come is uncertain里whether+从句作主语；He considered whether he should do it.，whether+从句作宾语
从属连词+从句作主语或宾语是语法里非常常见的，需要关注的是（1）从属连词连接的是句子而不是分词（2）从属连词要在从句里充当成分

whether A or B，A还是B；whether (or not) A，是否做A这件事情。这里与大陆关系更近与维持原状是两件不同的事情，用whether or表选择，如果只有一件事情，则可以说whether or not与大陆关系更近。

If whether is used to connect two verbs/actions, I'd keep it simple and just analyze all such situations with "or" as the parallel marker.
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If whether is used to connect two nouns, THEN I'd consider both "whether" and "or" as parallel markers.
E.g., Everyone in the country, whether civilian or soldier, was in danger during the war.

Otherwise you can just pay attention to "X or Y".

B：
- sentence fragment (there's no main subject, and/or no main verb: the whole thing is one big whether X or Y construction, which can't stand alone as a sentence)
- 'whether or not' is wordy (yes, that's enough to kill this answer choice all by itself) on the GMAT, whether or not is considered redundant.
Eliminate B, C and E.
- change in meaning: the way this is written, it's the status quo that is affecting the U.S., whereas the sentence is supposed to say that the decision (whether Taiwan will do blah blah blah) is what will affect the U.S.

D:
- the pronoun 'it' doesn't have an antecedent. there are certain idiomatic constructions in which a standalone 'it' is allowed (such as 'make it difficult to...'), but this isn't one of them.
- bad parallelism: 'will develop' is in the future tense, but 'preserves' is in the present tense. as they are alternatives in a decision, these must be presented in the same tense.

whether or not 这个店可以排除BCE，AD之间时态平行

D. or前后不平行。。。

https://forum.chasedream.com/thread-539632-1-1.html
whether引导宾语从句（包括介词宾语从句）和主语从句时不能加or not
whether引导状语从句时必须加or not

因为某个状态，所以某个状态更合理

D平行问题，will develop和preserve应保持时态一致 细节细节细节！！！
主动被动语态问题：被动语态更倾向于主系表结构，描述状态；主动语态是主谓宾结构，表示行为；后句描述了台湾的状态，所以前面更适合用描述状态的被动语态

一开始选的A 后来改成了D……没注意到preserve 唉

一直纠结介词by后面能不能接一个从句，所以选了d. 但是d中的preserves应该是原形

Also, E选项里，whether or not赘余。

E选项，it没有先行词作为指代对象。

BC秒杀，D preserves应该用原型，与develop 保持一致
A和E，E是主动形式，主语从句发出affect的动作
A是被动形式，更接近主系表结构，描述的一种状态（原因状语中也表示了一种状态），因为一种状态，导致了另一种状态，更好