Modern publishing companies have adapted to digital technologies in various ways. Several major publishers, including some traditional print houses, _...

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

• Modern publishing companies have adapted to digital technologies in various ways.
• Several major publishers,
• • including some traditional print houses,
• • (?) both physical books and digital editions
  • to reach diverse consumer markets.

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence gives us context:

• Modern publishing companies have adapted to digital technologies in various ways.
  • This just sets the stage - publishing has changed with digital technology.

Now the second sentence gets more specific:

• Several major publishers,
  • This is telling us about multiple publishers - 'several' means more than one.
• including some traditional print houses,
  • This phrase gives us extra detail about which publishers we're talking about - even some of the old-school print publishers are included.

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

• Several major publishers... ______ both physical books and digital editions

Let's look at our choices:

• A. to produce (infinitive form)
• B. produces (singular verb)
• C. produce (plural verb)
• D. having produced (participle form)

What do we notice?

• The subject is "Several major publishers" - this is PLURAL
• The phrase "including some traditional print houses" is extra information that comes between the subject and where the verb goes
• We need a main verb that matches our plural subject

So we need: produce (the plural verb form) - Choice C.

Now let's read the rest to see the complete picture:

• "both physical books and digital editions to reach diverse consumer markets"
  • This tells us what they produce (both formats)
  • and why they do it (to reach different types of customers)

The complete meaning: Publishing companies, including traditional ones, now produce both physical and digital books to serve different customer preferences.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Subject-Verb Agreement with Interrupting Phrases

When a phrase comes between the subject and verb, you still need to match the verb to the actual subject, not to words in the interrupting phrase.

The pattern:

• Subject (singular or plural)
• Interrupting phrase with extra information
• Verb (must match the subject)

Example 1:

• Wrong: "The students, including Maria, needs help."
• Correct: "The students, including Maria, need help."
• Subject = "students" (plural)
• Interrupting phrase = "including Maria"
• Verb must match "students" = need (plural)

Example 2:

• Wrong: "The cat, along with her kittens, are sleeping."
• Correct: "The cat, along with her kittens, is sleeping."
• Subject = "cat" (singular)
• Interrupting phrase = "along with her kittens"
• Verb must match "cat" = is (singular)

In our question:

• Subject = "Several major publishers" (plural)
• Interrupting phrase = "including some traditional print houses"
• Correct verb = "produce" (plural form)

The key is identifying the true subject and not being distracted by nouns that appear in phrases between the subject and verb.