TOEIC Reading 5 Exercisee 317

<p><span>We can read this question sentence as:</span><br></p><div><p><b>Since&nbsp;</b><strong>the Giant Corporation was established&nbsp;</strong><b>less than 4 years ago, the Giant corporation has become one of the leading car manufacturers in Europe.</b></p><p>This sentence is a complex sentence with a main clause and an adverbial clause.&nbsp;The adverbial clause is "Since the Giant Corporation was established less than 4 years ago". The main clause is "the Giant corporation has become one of the leading car manufacturers in Europe."</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><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 Giant Corporation" and the verb is "was established."</p></li><li><p><strong>Identify Redundancy</strong>: In the main clause, "the Giant Corporation" is also the subject. So, when reducing the adverb clause, the subject "the Giant Corporation" in the adverb clause is redundant and can be omitted.</p></li><li><p><strong>Change the Verb</strong>: The verb "was established" is a passive voice, so it should be transformed into its past participle form "Established" to create an adverbial phrase.</p></li><li><p><strong>Omit the Subordinating Conjunction</strong>: The subordinating conjunction "Since" is also often omitted when the adverb clause is reduced to a modifying phrase.</p></li></ol><p>Resulting Adverbial Phrase: "Established less than 4 years ago".</p><p>The correct answer is (C) Established.</p></div>