Hi Gaurav,
I agree with you, I'd also choose the D answer.
I had a look in the errata of the book, and very strange, there is a note about this question, and it confirms the E answer :
{336} Question #6;
The answer should be E, not D
HFSJ Errata I'm not sure to understand everything. Why doing an errata if there was no error ? Or is there an error in the errata
Anyway, there is an interesting table in the JSP 2.0 specification (pg I-88, table JSP.3-1) , where they explain the combinations of settings in the DD/page directive. It seems to confirm answer D.
But again, there is something not very clear there : they are using "unspecified" and "don't care" to describe the setting in the DD. I guess "unspecified" and "don't care" have a rather close signification, so assuming this, nothing set in the DD and isELIgnored="true" in the page makes EL expressions being ignored, which comes down to answer D.
Can anyone confirm this ?