TooLong150 wrote:
In attempting to solve the problems caused by a lowering of the price of oil, oil companies operating in the North Sea have taken a variety of approaches, which includes their reducing employment, using new technology to pump oil more efficiently from smaller fields, and finding innovative ways to cut the cost of building and operating platforms.
(A) which includes their reducing employment, using new technology to pump oil more efficiently
(B) which includes reducing employment, using new technology to be more efficient in pumping oil
(C) which include reducing employment, using new technology to pump oil more efficiently
(D) which include the reduction of employment, their using new technology to pump oil more efficiently
(E) including a reduction of employment, their use of new technology to be more efficient at pumping oil
Posting here, because other post does not have either OA or source.
This question is based on Parallelism and Subject-Verb Agreement.
The relative pronoun ‘which’ refers to the phrase “variety of approaches”. Since the compound subject (variety of approaches) begins with a quantitative word ‘variety’, the verb agrees with the second noun in the phrase ‘approaches’. The appropriate verb form thus would be ‘include’ and not the singular form ‘includes’. So,
Options A and B can be ruled out.
The last part of the sentence gives of a list of the approaches, so the three items in the list must be similar in structure. Option E lacks parallelism – “including a
reduction of employment,
their use of new technology to be more efficient at pumping oil from smaller fields, and
finding innovative ways to cut the cost of building and operating platforms”.
Since the last item in the list is not underlined, it is non-negotiable, the manner in which the other two items are mentioned should be similar to the structure of the last item in the list. So, it should be “reducing…, using….., and finding”. So,
Option E can also be eliminated.
Between Options C and D, Option D lacks parallelism. “which include the
reduction of employment,
their using new technology to pump oil more efficiently from smaller fields, and
finding innovative ways to cut the cost of building and operating platforms.” So,
Option D can be eliminated.
Subject-Verb agreement and parallelism are maintained in Option C. It has the appropriate form of the verb and the three approaches are parallel in structure – “which include
reducing employment,
using new technology to pump oil more efficiently from smaller fields, and
finding innovative ways to cut the cost of building and operating platforms”.
Therefore, C is the most appropriate option.Jayanthi Kumar.