In some cultures, speaking in a direct manner is valued whereas in

Hello SiDAhl,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can help resolve your doubts.

"directly" is an adverb that conveys the same meaning that the phrase "in a direct manner" does, but does so more concisely. Further, a close reading of the answer choices will show that Option E also omits the superfluous construction "to be", meaning it is the best answer choice.

We hope this helps.
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Experts' Global Team

ExpertsGlobal5 KarishmaB

A vs E-
I thought that "Speaking" is a gerund i.e. noun. So, "directly" i.e. adverb cannot modify a noun and therefore chose A. Request your inputs.

'Speaking' is a present participle verb form and together with its adverb 'directly,' it forms the gerund phrase 'speaking directly'.
What is valued? Speaking directly, not just speaking. 'directly' is an integral part of the gerund phrase, not an outside modifier.
Hence, it is acceptable.
Also note that 'in a direct manner' is also an adverbial prepositional phrase. It answers the question 'How?'

'Speaking in a direct manner' also forms a gerund phrase.

Hello Kushchokhani,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in this sentence "speaking" is a gerund, but it refers to the general action of speaking rather than to a specific instance, so it is a verb and can be modified by adverbs; in fact, "in a direct manner" is also an adverbial phrase, as it is used to describe how an action is done.

To understand this concept better, consider these sentences:

"Fighting all the time is unhealthy." - Here, the gerund "fighting" refers to a general action, so it is modified by the adverbial phrase "all the time".

"This continuous fighting is getting out of hand." - Here, the gerund "fighting" refers to a specific instance, so it is modified by the adjective "continuous".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Direct vs Directly.

Only difference between B and E is one uses Speaking in direct manner while another uses Speaking Directly.
I went through above reverts but could only understand that E and B means same but E does it in a concise way than B and hence E is correct. Am i missing something here!?