The only way to captivate the audience is to surprise them constantly

Correct pronoun for audience is IT.
Marked E.

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The correct answer in my view is option E. The subject of the sentence is audience, which is singular, hence the use of plural pronoun to refer to it is wrong. Hence A, B, and C can be eliminated. This is not a conditional statement. Even it were, it mimics a zero conditional, hence D can be eliminated.

The only way to captivate the audience is to surprise them constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play.

1st split in here is "the audience" which need to be defined either plural or singular noun. Regarding to parallelism, it is insignificant in this case since all the answer choice correctly follows the rules.

2nd split lays on the intended meaning of the sentence.

A. to surprise them constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play.--->This is the correct answer, "the audience" should be in plural form, and this option conveys the intended meaning.

B. if they are surprised constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play.--->"the audience" should be in plural form; however, it doesn't convey the intended meaning.

C. for them to be surprised constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play.----->"the audience" should be in plural form, wordy.

D. if the audience is surprised constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play.---->"the audience" should be in plural form, wordy and not convey the intended meaning.

E. to surprise it constantly with new scenes and new actors before it completely loses interest in the play.---->"the audience" should be in plural form.

The only way to captivate the audience is to surprise them constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play......Flawless

OA:A

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The only way to captivate the audience is to surprise them constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play.

The original sentence means to say that there’s only one way to keep audience engaged in a play. It is to keep surprising the audience through new scenes and new actors so that it does not lose interest. The sentence tests pronoun usage and ambiguity. Since ‘audience’ is a collective singular noun ‘it’ has to be used to refer it.

A. to surprise them constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play. – WRONG. The BIG NO here is using ‘them’ – a plural pronoun and ‘lose’ – a plural verb to refer audience. Again ‘they’ here can’t refer to either of the plural nouns ‘scenes’ or ‘actors’ both of which don’t make sense. The only antecedent to ‘they’ is audience that will lose interest.
B. if they are surprised constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play. – WRONG. Logically the sentence does not make sense if ‘if’ is used when sentence is talking about the ‘only way’ signaling a certainty. Again similar pronoun error as in option ‘A’ is found.
C. for them to be surprised constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play. – WRONG. ‘For them’ is unidiomatic. Over that similar pronoun error as in option ‘A’.
D. if the audience is surprised constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play. – WRONG. Conditional usage ‘if’ is incorrect similar to option ‘B’. Also singular verb is used and plural pronoun is used which is wrong.
E. to surprise it constantly with new scenes and new actors before it completely loses interest in the play. – CORRECT. Use of ‘It’ and ‘loses’ properly refers to audience .

Answer (E).

MEANING:
who is being surprised? THE AUDIENCE [singular]
before who loses interest? THE AUDIENCE [singular]

A. "the audience [sing]… them [plural]" sva error; "new scenes and actors before they" they who? the actors, scenes? unintended;
B. "the audience [sing]…they [p]" sva error; "before they" unclear antecedent and unintended;
C. "the audience [sing]… them [p]" sva error; "before they" unclear antecedent and unintended;
D. "before they" unclear antecedent and unintended;

Answer (E)

OA is E
All other choices have pronoun error.
Audience is group noun thus singular

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The only way to captivate the audience is to surprise them constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play.

Parallel elements in the sentence: new scenes and new actors

A. to surprise them constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play.-A seems perfectly fine
B. if they are surprised constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play. -if after only is ambigious, and awkard
C. for them to be surprised constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play. - run on sentence as is for them is incrrect
D. if the audience is surprised constantly with new scenes and new actors before they completely lose interest in the play. - goes out as discusses in A
E. to surprise it constantly with new scenes and new actors before it completely loses interest in the play. - pronoun error it- to whom it refers to , audience is plural so plural pronoun should be used

Official Explanation

Correct Answer: E

The best answer is E. For parallelism, the linking verb is should like two infinitives: The only way to captivate ... is to surprise, therefore B, C, and D are incorrect.
Choice A is incorrect because of the plural pronouns they and them, which do not agree with the singular noun audience.

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