A verb form question with a list tests whether you can keep the listed items in matching forms. Find the subject and read to the period for its main verb, which says what the subject does or is. Then check whether the blank belongs to a list joined by and, since its items must use matching forms. Compare whole verb forms, because a choice that works on its own may not work in a list.
Hints
- Hint 1
Find the subject and main verb in the sentence. Which words tell you what the editor did?
- Hint 2
Look at the list after recommended. What form begins each of the first two tasks, and how does and connect the blank to them?
Step-by-step
Find the verb, then match the list
Step 1Find the sentence’s main verb
In the editor recommended, editor is the subject, and recommended is the main verb, which says what the editor did. Read to the period: the rest of the sentence names the tasks the editor recommends. The sentence already has its main verb, so we need to check what form the blank takes in the list.
- Step 2
Find the tasks in the list
What does and join? It links the third recommended task to shortening sentences, trimming redundant words, not to the main verb recommended. Both shortening and trimming are -ing forms, and items joined in a list must have matching forms, so the headings task needs that same form.
- Step 3
Compare the verb forms
Which form can join shortening sentences, trimming redundant words? Standardize and standardizes are main verb forms, and having standardized describes the task as already completed. The plain -ing form standardizing names the task about headings in the same form as the other recommended tasks. Choice D.