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Difficulty: MediumParallel Structure

The sentence below describes the final steps of preparing a report. What verb form correctly completes the sentence to maintain parallel structure with the other actions in the list?

Answer:Before publishing the report, the editors spent hours verifying the sources, formatting the citations, and 【checking】 the spelling of technical terms.

Answer

Any present participle (verb ending in -ing) that logically fits the context, such as 'checking', 'proofreading', or 'correcting'.
The correct answer must be a present participle (ending in -ing) because the previous two items in the list ('verifying' and 'formatting') are present participles. Grammatical parallelism requires all items in a coordinate list to share the same part of speech and form.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the structure of the list in the sentence.
The sentence lists three actions the editors did: 'verifying the sources', 'formatting the citations', and the action in the blank.
Grammatical items in a list must share the same form to maintain parallel structure.
2
Determine the grammatical form of the existing list items.
Both 'verifying' and 'formatting' are present participles (verbs ending in -ing).
This establishes the grammatical pattern that the final list item must follow.
3
Choose a verb that fits the context of 'the spelling of technical terms' and matches the present participle form.
Verbs like 'checking', 'proofreading', or 'correcting' fit both the grammatical pattern and the semantic context.
Using an -ing verb maintains parallelism, whereas other forms like 'checked' or 'to check' would break the pattern.

Key Concept

Parallelism in a list of actions requires all verbs to share the same grammatical form.
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Topics

Parallel Structure

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