Advertising firms know that how a product is displayed and the reputat

Main clause: Advertising firms know
Subclause starts with: "that" - it contains a "sub" sentence in which the subject is: "how a product is displayed and ..."
Here ||ism comes into picture. In addition "the reputation of the television.." itself makes an individual noun phrase which does not make sense with "how a product is displayed.."
SO.. the complete subject of the subclause is :"how a product is displayed and how reputable a television show is" (a noun phrase) ... here we need a Modal verb which is the helping verb of the main verb "determine" in the subclause..
ONE has to focus on the meaning the author is trying to convey here... "determines" in D conveys a "general" truth WHERE AS author is saying that "Advertising firm" CAN analyze that...

One has to read the sentence few times in order to grasp the real meaning. A good question...

Advertising firms know that how a product is displayed and the reputation of a television show can determine the effectiveness of product placements.


(A) the reputation of the television show can determine

(B) the reputation of the television show is determined by

(C) the reputation with which the the television show is regarded is determined by

(D) how reputable a television show is determines

(E) how reputable a television show is can determine

ABC removed due to parallelism, out of D,E E is the better choice.

Please underline the relevant part of the sentence. Based on the answer choices, it is presumed that "the reputation of a television show can determine" is the underlined portion of the sentence in the original question.
The sentence presents a list of two factors that determine the effectiveness of product placements:
1. how a product is displayed, and
2. the reputation of a television show
Clearly, the two items in the list are not parallel. Hence, option A is ruled out.

(A) the reputation of the television show can determine rejected because it is not parallel

(B) the reputation of the television show is determined by rejected because it is not parallel

(C) the reputation with which the the television show is regarded is determined by rejected because it is not parallel

(D) how reputable a television show is determines.
This option is rejected as the subject-verb pair is not in agreement. If you notice the sentence follows the structure: SUBJECT - VERB - THAT - SUBJECT - VERB - OBJECT. Remember, when the word THAT appears just after a working verb, it acts as a reset in the sentence and a new subject-verb-object structure will follow. The new subject in the given sentence is "how a product is displayed and how reputable a television show is". As this is a compound subject (plural) the verb must be plural. In this option D, the verb "determines" is singular. Hence, this option is rejected

(E) how reputable a television show is can determine This is the correct answer. It maintains a parallel structure and the subject verb pair is in agreement.

As you mentioned, the required portion has been underlined and the option A has been modified to match the underlined portion.

Another reason that B and C are eliminated is that the passive construction changes the meaning of the original sentence altogether.

[quote="surya167"]Advertising firms know that how a product is displayed and the reputation of a television show can determine the effectiveness of product placements.


(A) the reputation of a television show can determine - Parallelism problem, it should be Advertising ............... that how ..... and how .....

(B) the reputation of the television show is determined by - changes the meaning - product placement is determined by these two factors

(C) the reputation with which the the television show is regarded is determined by - awkward/wordy/changes the meaning - product placement is determined by these two factors

(D) how reputable a television show is determines - singular verb "determines" for plural display and reputaion

(E) how reputable a television show is can determine - correct parallelism - meaning - Verb agreement

E is a clear winner.. because of parallelism and subject verb agreement . D was close , if it did not have the SV agreement error, I would have got worried.

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