Official ExplanationTo improve interdepartmental relationships and develop a strong talent pool, the board of directors
is preparing to invite all middle management employees in the company to attend a company retreat and participate in a global networking event.
A. is preparing to invite all middle management employees in the company to attend a company retreat and participateB. is preparing to invite all middle management employees in the company are attending a company retreat and participateC. is preparing on inviting all middle management employees in the company are attending a company retreat, and they will participateD. has prepared to invite all middle management employees in the company are attending a company retreat and participatingE. has prepared for inviting all middle management employees in the company to attend a company retreat and participatingAfter a quick glance over the options, we have a few key differences we can focus on to narrow down our choices:
1. is preparing / has prepared (Verb Tense)
2. to invite / on inviting / for inviting (Idioms)
3. to attend / are attending (Verb Choice & Parallelism)
4. and participate / and they will participate / and participating (Parallelism)While it may be tempting to start with #1, we’re going to skip to #2. WHY? Because we don’t have enough context in the sentence to know if the present tense or present perfect tense is needed here (we don’t know if the preparations started in the past and continued to now, or just started now). Not all differences have clear ways to whittle them down, so let’s skip it and move on to #2.
#2 on our list is an issue with idioms. When discussing preparations, here is how we handle this idiom:
prepare to + verb(Sharon prepared to order her favorite takeaway meal on Friday night.) prepare for + noun(My children prepared for my surprise birthday party by baking a rainbow-colored cake.)Let’s keep the options that use this idiom correctly, and eliminate any that don’t:
A.
is preparing to invite all middle management employees in the company to attend a company retreat and participate
B.
is preparing to invite all middle management employees in the company are attending a company retreat and participate
C.
is preparing on inviting all middle management employees in the company are attending a company retreat, and they will participate
(Note: “prepare on + verb” is not idiomatic at all, so it’s wrong.)D.
has prepared to invite all middle management employees in the company are attending a company retreat and participating
E.
has prepared for inviting all middle management employees in the company to attend a company retreat and participating
We can eliminate options C & E because they don’t follow the proper idiom format for the verb “to prepare.” Now that we have it narrowed down a bit, let’s focus on #3 and #4 on our list, which both have something to do with parallelism. We need to make sure the 2 actions the employees are being invited to do (attend the retreat and participate in a networking event) are parallel:
A. is preparing to invite all middle management employees in the company to attend a company retreat and participateThis is our
CORRECT choice! The two actions employees are being invited to do are parallel and written using clear, logical verbs.
B. is preparing to invite all middle management employees in the company are attending a company retreat and participateThis is
INCORRECT for a couple reasons. First, it doesn’t make logical sense to say “are attending” here because it’s actually going against another idiom: invite X to Y. We don’t say that we’re “inviting X are Y.” Also, the two actions (attending/participate) aren’t parallel.
D. has prepared to invite all middle management employees in the company are attending a company retreat and participatingWhile the two actions (attending/participating) are parallel, this is still
INCORRECT because it doesn’t follow the idiom “invite X to Y.”
There you have it – option A was the right choice all along! By passing over a potentially confusing “either/or” split, we were able to narrow down our options without needing to address it at all!
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