Official ExplanationThe American Red Cross strives to provide care, time, money, and blood where needed and
works with governments around the world to deliver vital services to people in crisis, such as those affected by natural disasters, conflict, and famine.
A. works with governments around the world to deliver vital services to people inB. work with governments around the world for delivery of vital services to people inC. work with governments around the world and deliver vital services to people for theirD. working with governments around the world, delivering vital services to people withE. in working with governments around the world to deliver vital services to people inA review of our answer choices shows that verb form is the main issue with this sentence. We have several words that are either verbs or verbals (gerunds, participles, and infinitives). When verbs and verb forms are the key to finding the answer, it is important to review the portion of the sentence that is not underlined.
The first part of our sentence reads “The American Red Cross strives to provide care, time, money, and blood where needed and . . .” There is no comma before “and,” so we are not starting a new independent clause; what comes after the “and” needs to work with the first part of the sentence. The sentence starts with a singular subject and a singular verb + infinitive, so what comes after the “and” will need to either be part of an infinitive that works with “strive to ____” or a singular verb.
Options D and E use “working” and “in working,” respectively. “The American Red Cross working/in working.” That doesn’t make sense. “The American Red Cross strives working/in working.” That doesn’t make sense. “The American Red Cross strives to provide care and working with governments.” That doesn’t make sense. “The American Red Cross strives to provide care and in working with governments.” That doesn’t make sense!
Options D and E cannot be the correct answers.The beginning of the sentence uses a verb + infinitive construction, so a parallel clause would also use a verb + infinitive. At first glance, it seems as though none of our answer choices have that construction, but it is important to notice that the verb is followed by an object (with governments) and a prepositional phrase (around the world). If we ignore those, Option A has a verb + infinitive (to deliver) while Option B has a verb + prepositional phrase (for delivery).
Option B is not the best answer because it lacks parallel construction.Option C has the verb “work,” so it is trying to parallel the infinitive that follows “strives.” That is a correct construction, but then we have another “and + verb” in this option (and deliver). This option either wants to have three infinitive clauses in a row—"The American Red Cross strives to provide care and (to) work with governments and (to) deliver vital services.” While not ungrammatical, this is much wordier than it needs to be. It also ends with “for their.” The sentence would read “deliver vital services to people for their crisis.” In this situation, “crisis” would need to be plural, and it’s not. Even if it were, this is still more awkward than “for people in crisis.”
Option C cannot be the best answer.We have successfully eliminated four answer choices. Option A uses parallel construction and the correct verb form, is concise, and makes sense.
Option A is the best answer.