<div style=""><span style="color: rgb(62, 62, 62);">We can read this question sentence as:</span><br></div><div style=""><p><strong>As the country knew the possible coming retaliation in the trade, the country decided to seize the initiatives and form stronger bonds with neighboring countries.</strong></p><p>This sentence is a complex sentence with a main clause and an adverbial clause. The adverbial clause is "As the country knew the possible coming retaliation in the trade". The main clause is "the country decided to seize the initiatives and form stronger bonds with neighboring countries."</p><p><strong>Reducing the adverbial clause to the adverbial phrase.</strong></p><p>An adverb clause can be reduced to an adverbial phrase by removing the subject and the be-verb when they are not essential to the meaning of the sentence.</p></div><div style="">Original Adverb Clause: "<span style="color: rgb(62, 62, 62);">As the country knew the possible coming retaliation in the trade</span>"</div><div style=""><p>Here's a step-by-step breakdown:</p><ol><li><p><strong>Identify the Subject and Verb in the Adverb Clause</strong>: The subject is "the country" and the verb is "knew."</p></li><li><p><strong>Identify Redundancy</strong>: In the main clause, "the country" is also the subject. So, when reducing the adverb clause, the subject "the country" in the adverb clause is redundant and can be omitted.</p></li><li><p><strong>Change the Verb</strong>: The verb "knew" is an active voice, so it should be transformed into its present participle form "knowing" to create an adverbial phrase.</p></li><li><p><strong>Omit the Subordinating Conjunction</strong>: The subordinating conjunction "As" is also often omitted when the adverb clause is reduced to a modifying phrase.</p></li></ol><p>Resulting Adverbial Phrase: "Knowing the possible coming retaliation in the trade,".</p><p>The correct answer is (C) Knowing.</p></div>