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Difficulty: HardParallel Structure

Complete the passage with the word that maintains a parallel structure within the sentence.

Answer:In her recent book on environmental policy, climatologist Dr. Elena Rostova analyzes the efficacy of various global warming mitigation strategies. After reviewing decades of carbon emission data, she posits that successfully curbing the rise in global temperatures depends less on implementing localized municipal recycling programs than on 【reducing】 greenhouse gas emissions from major industrial sectors.

Answer

A present participle (gerund) such as 'reducing' or 'curbing' to parallel the gerund 'implementing'.
The sentence compares two strategies using the 'depends less on [first strategy] than on [second strategy]' formula. The first strategy is described by a gerund phrase ('implementing localized municipal recycling programs'). Therefore, to maintain parallel structure, the second strategy must also be described by a gerund phrase starting with an -ing verb (such as 'reducing', 'curbing', or 'limiting') that directly precedes the noun phrase 'greenhouse gas emissions'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the parallel comparison structure in the sentence.
The comparison uses the trigger phrase 'depends less on... than on...'.
Parallelism requires that the elements being compared have matching grammatical forms.
2
Analyze the grammatical structure of the first compared element.
The first element after the preposition 'on' is 'implementing localized municipal recycling programs', which begins with the gerund 'implementing' and takes a direct object.
Analyzing the first element determines the required grammatical structure of the second element.
3
Determine the correct grammatical form for the blank.
The blank must be filled with a gerund (a verb ending in -ing, such as 'reducing' or 'limiting') that takes 'greenhouse gas emissions' as its direct object.
Using a gerund ensures that both parts of the comparison are parallel gerund phrases.

Key Concept

Parallel Structure
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Topics

Parallel Structure

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