Many corporations are scaling back their operations and focusing on

A for me too. In B, usage of would is incorrect.

Can you please elaborate more?

Regards.
Arup

Question Explanation

This sentence is correct as written.

The underlined portion of the sentence contains the idiom, so as…to, so check to see if that idiom is correct. There appears to be no error in the original sentence, so keep choice A. Because there is no error in the original sentence, there are no obvious repeaters to look for, so evaluate the remaining answer choices individually looking for reasons to eliminate each.

Choice B contains a pronoun, them, which might refer to corporations, operations, or businesses, so this is a pronoun ambiguity error. Eliminate choice B. Choice C contains two pronouns, they and them, which again might refer to corporations, operations, or businesses, so this is another pronoun ambiguity error. Eliminate choice C. Choice D restructures the sentence to create an additional list. Are scaling and to be hindered are not parallel, so eliminate choice D. Choice E contains the pronoun them, which might refer to corporations, operations, or businesses, so this is a pronoun ambiguity error. Eliminate choice E.

Alternatively, if it is difficult to spot the grammar rule the sentence is testing, another strategy is to identify an error from the answers by looking for either a 2/3 split or differences among the answers. Because three of the answer choices use the preposition so and two of them use the conjunction and, this difference is an indication to look for parallel construction errors.

Choice A: Correct.

Choice B: No. The pronoun them is ambiguous. Pronoun ambiguity.

Choice C: No. The pronouns they and them are ambiguous. Pronoun ambiguity.

Choice D: No. The verb forms are scaling and to be hindered are not parallel. Parallel construction.

Choice E: No. The pronoun them is ambiguous. Pronoun ambiguity.

The correct answer is choice A.

Reasoning:
B, C, E) Vague pronoun. Them could refer to companies or businesses
D) And conjunction doesn't make sense. Since "Many corporations are scaling back their operations and focusing on their core businesses" results in the companies not being hindered. I think if D) removed the and the sentence would be fine since thereby means as a result

Is it right to eliminate an answer just based on pronoun ambiguity ?

I had the same doubt. I felt B was a right answer. Also So as to is a wrong idiom
So 'Adjective' to + Verb is the right one - something I read in another post.
Not sure which is right

Priyanka1293
Vinodhini1803

We don't want to cut a choice simply because it uses a pronoun that could in theory refer to more than one noun in the sentence. However, if it's legitimately unclear what the pronoun is referring to, then we can feel justified cutting the choice, and I'd argue that that's the case here.

There is also another problem with B--"would." We use "would" for hypotheticals ("If you did X, she would do Y") or as the past tense of will ("'I thought she would not do that."). A desired result does not count as a hypothetical, so "would" doesn't work here.

Thank you for a quick reply.
if the sentence is "Many corporations scaled back their operation..." then is usage of would right?

Vinodhini1803
We could use "would" in such a situation, but only if we had a clause that would be written as "will" in the present tense.

Watch this switch from present to past:

If you damage the truck, your parents will be mad.
I knew that if you damaged the truck, your parents would be mad.

Here, will/would is not quite right, since we're not saying for sure that the corporations will not be hindered. We're simply explaining the motivation or goal for the companies' actions, so the construction "so as not to" works very well.

Got it. thanks

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