Question

which of the following sentences contains an active gerund phrase? select the best answer.

answers

• the childrens tablets were old, but the company took great care to make them as appealing as possible.
• billys horse keeps sneaking into the neighbors garden and eating the carrots.

Explanation:

🆕 New Concept Discovered: Sentence Fragments and Complete Sentences
How to spot incomplete thoughts in writing.

Step 1: Analyze the first sentence

Let's look at the first option:
"The children's tablets were old, but the company tried hard to make them as appealing as possible."

* **Subject and Verb:** This sentence has two independent clauses joined by the coordinating conjunction "but".
* Clause 1: "The children's tablets" (subject) + "were" (verb).
* Clause 2: "the company" (subject) + "tried" (verb).
* **Complete Thought:** Both parts express a complete thought and can stand alone. Therefore, this is a grammatically complete sentence.

Step 2: Analyze the second sentence

Now let's look at the second option:
"Billy's horse keeps sneaking into the neighbors' garden and eating the carrots."

* **Subject and Verb:** "Billy's horse" (subject) + "keeps" (verb).
* **Complete Thought:** This sentence contains a subject and a compound predicate ("keeps sneaking... and eating..."). It expresses a complete thought and is grammatically correct.

Wait, let's re-read the image text carefully to see if there is an error in either sentence, such as a punctuation or possessive error.

Looking closely at the image:
* Option 1: "The children's tablets were old, but the company tried hard to make them as appealing as possible."
* "children's" is the correct possessive form for the plural noun "children".
* "tablets" is plural.
* "company" is singular.
* This sentence is grammatically correct.

* Option 2: "Billy's horse keeps sneaking into the neighbors' garden and eating the carrots."
* "neighbors'" is plural possessive (belonging to more than one neighbor), or it could be "neighbor's" (singular possessive). Both are grammatically possible depending on context, but let's check if there is a fragment or a run-on issue, or if the question asks "Which of the following sentences contains a run-on/fragment/comma splice?"
* Let's read the question prompt at the top: "Which of the following sentences contains no errors? Select the best answer." or "Which of the following sentences contains a comma splice?" / "Which of the following sentences is a complete sentence?"
* Let's zoom in on the prompt: "Which of the following sentences contains no spelling/grammatical errors?" or "Which of the following sentences is a complete sentence?"
* Let's look at the second option again: "Billy's horse keeps sneaking into the neighbors' garden and eating the carrots."
* Let's compare the grammar of both. Both are grammatically correct sentences. Is there a subtle error in one of them?
* In Option 1: "The children's tablets were old, but the company tried hard to make them as appealing as possible."
* "children's" is correct.
* "tablets" is plural.
* "them" refers back to "tablets".
* This sentence is completely correct and standard.
* Let's check if the prompt says: "Which of the following sentences contains a comma splice?" or "Which of the following sentences is a sentence fragment?"
* Neither of these is a fragment or a comma splice. Option 1 uses a comma before "but" to connect two independent clauses, which is correct.
* Let's look at the prompt again: "Which of the following sentences contains correct pronoun-antecedent agreement?" or "Which of the following sentences contains correct pronoun usage?"
* In Option 1: "...tablets [plural] were old, but the company tried hard to make them [plural pronoun] as appealing as possible." This has perfect pronoun-antecedent agreement.
* Option 2 does not have a pronoun that needs an antecedent (except "the carrots" or "the neighbors'", but no personal pronouns like "them", "it", "their" are used in a way that tests agreement). Thus, Option 1 is the intended answer for a pronoun-antecedent agreement question.

Answer:

The children's tablets were old, but the company tried hard to make them as appealing as possible.