Subjunctive Verb

Hello, GMATist1. Since you have asked about working through the original sentence in the manner of e-GMAT, I will refrain from going through each step—I do not work with the company and feel as though someone on that end should provide the analysis you seek. But I do feel at liberty to answer your question above with a definitive NO. You cannot place is used at the end of the first option, since doing so would violate basic subject-verb agreement. Once the noun clause that begins with that images starts up, it does not resolve until the end of the sentence, and you would not say, it is desirable that images is used. That is flat-out wrong.

This is a tricky sentence to parse because it does not build from the simplest of structures. I will add my tags bit by bit in an effort to help you break down things for yourself.



For producing effective e-learning content is a prepositional phrase.

it is what is known as a placeholder. It serves a grammatical purpose without referring to anything in particular. (Popular examples of such usage surround weather descriptions such as It is sunny today.)

is desirable forms the predicate of the main clause: is is the verb, while desirable is used as a noun to answer what something is.

that images... are used, the entire underlined portion, is a noun or nominative clause that effectively serves as the subject of the main clause. The sentence is conveying that using certain types of images is desirable: That images... are used is desirable.

Within the above clause, that paint... learner is a relative clause that modifies the noun images. As such, the clause serves in the capacity of an adjective.

Within the embedded clause above, you encounter further prepositional phrases: of is a tip-off.

I hope the above helps you. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew