Some business experts think that allowing employees to buy their employer’s stock for a set price, no matter how high the stock rises, will give the employees a powerful incentive to work together, making a company more prosperous, which will thus .
A. to work together, making a company more prosperous, which will thus
B. to work together to make a company more prosperous and will thus
C. for working together, making a company more prosperous, and thus they
D. for working together to make a company more prosperous, and thus it will
E. for working together and making a company more prosperous, which will thus
Explanation: Some business experts think that allowing employees to buy their employer’s stock
“Which”. That’s a big one. If you see it then get busy analyzing it. Usually there’s a mistake centered around it (assuming some of the underlined portion is around the which). In general, look to the left and right of “which”. The two things should relate directly. You should be able to remove “which” and just read that portion. Another thing here: “and”. It usually indicates parallelism so be on the lookout for parallel structure.
A. to work together, making a company more prosperous, which will thus
The “which” doesn’t work here and creates ambiguity. Try removing it and see if that part of the sentence flows. More prosperous will thus… Doesn’t work so well does it? Also, from a meaning perspective, this loses the connection between allowing employees to buy their employer’s stock for a set price and increase the return to shareholders.
B. to work together to make a company more prosperous and will thus
CORRECT. This is clear and concise. There’s a nice parallel structure to follow. Allowing employees to buy their employer’s stock for a set price will X and will thus Y. It’s clear that allowing the employee stock purchases starts a chain of events that leads to the increase in returns for shareholders.
C. for working together, making a company more prosperous, and thus they
Analyze pronouns to make sure they make sense. Here at the end of the sentence we have “they”. What does “they” refer to? Probably the “Employees”. Ok. Well, is the the employees that “increase the return to shareholders”? Not really. It’s the buying stock that will create incentive that will make the company more prosperous thus increasing return. Also, there’s an idiom: incentive to.
D. for working together to make a company more prosperous, and thus it will
Again, analyze the pronouns. This time we have “it”. What does “it” refer to? Most likely to “company”. Is it the company that will increase the return to shareholders? Not quite. Also, there’s an idiom: incentive to.
E. for working together and making a company more prosperous, which will thus
The “which” doesn’t work here and creates ambiguity. Try removing it and see if that part of the sentence flows. More prosperous will thus… Doesn’t work so well does it? Also, from a meaning perspective, this loses the connection between allowing employees to buy their employer’s stock for a set price and increase the return to shareholders.
Correct Answer: B
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