Our attending the conference is dependent on our pilot receiving clear

You didn't explain why C is not the answer.
In fact C could be the answer.
or why not.
What is wrong with this question.
somebody help

our attending the conference
is wrong grammatically

Since "our" is a possessive pronoun, "our attending" does seem to be difficult to understand.

What does it suggest? We possess what?

Hello Nez,
I'm Happy to help !
Actually, This question tests our reasoning skills along with our ability to correct grammatical errors.

Our attending the conference is dependent on our pilot receiving clearance to take off.
Here the bold phrase (beginning with verb-ing modifier) is modifying the noun "pilot".
Always keep this in mind: "Verb-ing modifier that precedes a noun without comma, always modifies that noun."

Now if you would apply the rule that I mentioned above, you'll notice that in the original sentence, the noun "pilot" is an object of the sentence. Also, if you'd think logically, it will come in your mind that their chances of attending the conference does not depend on the pilot, but the pilot's clearance for a take off(Read the original sentence as "Our attending the conference is dependent on our pilot" Logically incorrect. isn't it ? ). This will help us eliminate option A,B and D.

Option C completely distorts the intended meaning of the original sentence. For example,
In the original sentence, the intended meaning is that their chances of attending the conference depends on the pilot's clearance to take off.
Whereas according to option C, it seems that attending the conference is already in their control and they will only attend it if the pilot receives the clearance. That's not what the original sentence wanted to convey.

Hope that helps.

Kindly do give me kudos if you find this helpful (Badly Need'em )

Our attending the conference is dependent on our pilot receiving clearance to take off.

Here from the meaning it is clear that the sentence essentially says that attending the conference is dependent on receiving the clearance. Here attending and receiving are both nouns or gerunds more specifically. Our is a possessive pronoun modifying the noun or is an adjective to the noun attending. More examples: his pen, our shop, her sandal. Here his, our and her are adjective modifying respective nouns. However "pilot receiving" is wrong since Pilot is a noun and not an adjective and therefore cannot modify a gerund. Here receiving is acting as present participle modifying noun Pilot and therefore it conveys wrong meaning that attending the conference is dependent of pilot(who is receiving clearance to take off.). So we should have a possessive Pilot's before receiving to convey the correct meaning.

A. Our attending the conference is dependent on our pilot receiving clearance to take off.
Wrong as suggested in above analysis. We need possessive pilot's.

B. Our attending the conference depends on our pilot receiving clearance to take off.
Wrong as suggested above.

C. We will attend the conference only if our pilot receives clearance of take off.
Changes the meaning completely. From a mere dependence to a condition.

D. Our attending the conference is dependent on our pilot receiving clearance for take off.
Wrong as suggested above.

E. Our attending the conference is dependent on our pilot’s receiving clearance to take off.

Correct as s suggested above.

This one is…tricky. I think C can be taken out, immediately, because ‘clearance of take off’ is not idiomatic, ‘clearance to take off’ or ‘clearance for take off’ needs to be used. This took a while but I was able to figure out how to eliminate all three of the incorrect options still remaining. In A b and D ‘receiving clearance…’ is used as a modifier for pilot. This alters the meaning of the sentence to just be ‘Our attending the conference is dependent on our pilot’ rather than on the pilot’s receiving clearance for take off.



So the correct option is E.

A very tough question. Perhaps it will be in everyone's interest, if official explanation is posted for this question.
A big thank you in advance

Hi Guys
As per the question, it doesn't convey the whole action or you can process/Phenomenon
Here the structure is preposition+noun+ing which does not convey the whole phenomenon there is no conjunction plus no subordinating conjunction
To convey the whole meaning we use apostrophes in the case of the noun and possessive determiners in the case of the pronoun

By this rule, we can eliminate A, B, AND D
on our pilot+receiving-------> This doesn't convey the whole process it conveys till receiving clearance
We left with C and E
in C "of" is incorrect. clearance TO should be used.
E is the exact answer to what we want to convey the whole process

Excuse for typo error