In the 1950s, a man named Joseph McVicker was struggling to keep his business afloat when his sister-in-law Kay Zufall...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• In the 1950s,
  • a man named Joseph McVicker
    • was struggling to keep his business afloat
      • when his sister-in-law Kay Zufall
        • advised him to repurpose the company's product,
          • a nontoxic, clay-like substance for removing soot
            • from wallpaper,
          • as a modeling putty for kids.
• In addition,
  • Zufall [?] selling the product under a child-friendly name:
    • Play-Doh.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start from the beginning:

In the 1950s,
a man named Joseph McVicker
was struggling to keep his business afloat

This sets the scene – we're in the 1950s, and McVicker's business was in trouble.

when his sister-in-law Kay Zufall
advised him to repurpose the company's product,
a nontoxic, clay-like substance for removing soot from wallpaper,
as a modeling putty for kids.

So Zufall gave him advice: take this product they were making (which was meant for cleaning wallpaper) and turn it into a toy for kids.

Now here's where we need to fill in the blank:

"In addition, Zufall ______ selling the product under a child-friendly name: Play-Doh."

Let's look at our choices:

• suggested (simple past)
• suggests (present tense)
• had suggested (past perfect)
• was suggesting (past progressive)

What do we notice about what we need here?

• The passage is telling us what happened in the 1950s
  • Everything is in the past
• In the first sentence, we learned that Zufall "advised" him to repurpose the product
  • That's simple past tense
• Now with "In addition," the sentence is telling us another thing Zufall did
  • She advised him to repurpose it, AND
  • She also did something else related to naming it
• These are two actions being listed as things Zufall did at that same time
  • They should use the same tense to show they're parallel actions

So we need simple past tense to match "advised": suggested

The correct answer is A.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Keeping Verb Tenses Consistent for Parallel Actions

When you're narrating multiple actions that happened at the same time in the past and presenting them as parallel information (like a list of things someone did), use the same verb tense for consistency:

Example 1 - Parallel actions introduced with "In addition":

• First action: "Kay Zufall advised him to repurpose the product" (simple past)
• Second action: "In addition, Zufall suggested selling it under a child-friendly name" (simple past)
  • Both use simple past because they're coordinate actions in the same timeframe

Example 2 - Another context:

• "The coach trained the team for months. Moreover, she developed a new strategy."
  • Both "trained" and "developed" are simple past - parallel actions

Example 3 - What NOT to do:

• "The coach trained the team for months. Moreover, she develops a new strategy."
  • Mixing past and present breaks the consistency

Why it matters in this question:

• The phrase "In addition" signals you're adding parallel information
• Since "advised" is simple past, "suggested" should also be simple past
• This creates smooth, consistent narration of what happened in the 1950s