Question 227·Medium·Form, Structure, and Sense
Responding to employee concerns, the ethics committee recommended that the company ____ its hiring policies so as to ensure greater transparency.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For verb-form questions like this, first identify the sentence’s time and purpose (fact, habit, completed action, recommendation, or possibility). Pay special attention to trigger verbs such as 'recommend,' 'suggest,' 'demand,' and 'insist' followed by 'that'; these usually require the subjunctive base form of the verb (no -s, no past tense, no 'will') in the clause that follows. Quickly plug each option into the full sentence, eliminate any that change the meaning to a simple statement of fact, a past event, or a certain future event, and choose the one that fits the intended meaning and standard grammar pattern.
Hints
Look at the verb before the blank
Notice the word 'recommended' and the structure 'recommended that the company ____ its hiring policies.' Think about what kind of action is being expressed: a fact, something that already happened, or something the committee thinks should happen.
Pay attention to the word 'that' after 'recommended'
After verbs like 'recommend,' 'suggest,' or 'insist,' English often uses a special pattern in the 'that' clause. Ask yourself: in this kind of sentence, do we usually add -s, use past tense, or use the plain form of the verb?
Test each option in the full sentence
Read the sentence out loud with each choice: 'recommended that the company revises/revised/will revise/revise its hiring policies.' Which one sounds like a general recommendation, not a description of what already happened or definitely will happen?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the sentence meaning
The ethics committee is not describing what the company already did, but giving advice in response to employee concerns. So the sentence expresses a recommendation about what the company should do with its hiring policies.
Identify the key grammar structure
The phrase 'recommended that the company ____ its hiring policies' is a common structure in English: after verbs like 'recommend,' 'suggest,' 'insist,' and 'demand,' we often use a special form called the subjunctive in the 'that' clause. In this pattern, the verb in the clause (the one filling the blank) appears in its base form, not with -s or past tense endings, no matter what the subject is.
Eliminate verbs with the wrong tense or form
Check each option:
- 'revises' is present tense with -s, which is for a simple statement like 'the company revises its policies every year,' not a recommendation.
- 'revised' is past tense, which would mean the change already happened, contradicting the idea of a recommendation.
- 'will revise' is future tense, which states what will happen, not what is recommended. Only the base form (no -s, no tense endings, no 'will') fits the recommendation structure 'recommended that the company ____ its hiring policies.'
Choose the correct base-form verb
The base form of the verb 'to revise' is 'revise', so the sentence should read: 'Responding to employee concerns, the ethics committee recommended that the company revise its hiring policies so as to ensure greater transparency.'