Cost cutting and restructuring has allowed the manufacturing company

Hello Everyone!

Let's take a look at this question, one problem at a time, and narrow it down to find the correct answer! To get us started, here is the original question. I also highlighted the major differences between each option in orange:

Cost cutting and restructuring has allowed the manufacturing company to lower its projected losses for the second quarter, and they are forecasting a profit before the end of the year.

A. has allowed the manufacturing company to lower its projected losses for the second quarter, and they are forecasting
B. has allowed for the manufacturing company to lower its projected losses in the second quarter and to forecast
C. have allowed that the manufacturing company can lower the projected losses for the second quarter, and to forecast
D. have allowed the manufacturing company to lower its projected second-quarter losses and to forecast
E. have allowed for the manufacturing company to lower the projected losses in the second quarter, as well as forecasting

It's clear after taking a quick glance at the options that we have two major issues:

1. has allowed vs. have allowed
2. to forecast vs. forecasting

Let's start with #1 on our list: has allowed vs. have allowed. The subject of this sentence is "Cost cutting and restructuring," which is a plural subject that needs the plural verb "have allowed." Let's see how each answer stacks up:

A. has allowed the manufacturing company to lower its projected losses for the second quarter, and they are forecasting
B. has allowed for the manufacturing company to lower its projected losses in the second quarter and to forecast
C. have allowed that the manufacturing company can lower the projected losses for the second quarter, and to forecast
D. have allowed the manufacturing company to lower its projected second-quarter losses and to forecast
E. have allowed for the manufacturing company to lower the projected losses in the second quarter, as well as forecasting

We can eliminate options A and B because they use the a singular verb "has allowed," which doesn't match the plural subject.

Now that we're left with options C, D, and E, let's take a look at #2 on the list: to forecast vs. forecasting. We know that cost cutting and restructuring allowed two things to happen: lower projected losses for the second quarter, and forecast a profit before the end of the year. The best way to tackle this is to check each answer for parallel structure! Both versions of "lower" and "forecast" need to be worded using parallel format, so let's see how each option stacks up:

C. have allowed that the manufacturing company can lower the projected losses for the second quarter, and to forecast --> WRONG / NOT PARALLEL
D. have allowed the manufacturing company to lower its projected second-quarter losses and to forecast --> CORRECT / PARALLEL
E. have allowed for the manufacturing company to lower the projected losses in the second quarter, as well as forecasting --> WRONG / NOT PARALLEL

There you go - option D is the correct answer because it uses the correct subject-verb agreement with "have allowed," and it uses parallel structure when saying "to lower" and "to forecast."


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