TOEIC Reading 5 Exercisee 41

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="">Based on the meaning of the context, the question originally goes like this: In April, the unemployment rate soared to 21.2 percent for people with less than a high school degree, </span><span style="font-weight: 700;">and (it) surpassed</span><span style=""> the previous all-time high set in the aftermath of the Great Recession.&nbsp;</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="">The coordinating conjunction “and” can be interpreted in two ways. First, “and” connects two independent clauses, and the pronoun “it” in the second independent clause refers to the unemployment rate, the same as the subject of the first independent clause. Second, “and” connecting two verbs in parallel structure “soared” and “surpassed”, and the two verbs share the same subject “the unemployment rate.”&nbsp; In this case, the pronoun “it” is not used.&nbsp;</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="">Either way, the coordinating conjunction “and” can be omitted, but meanwhile the verb after it has to change into a present participle, that is, “surpassing.” Besides, since “it” refers to the same thing as the subject of the first independent clause, it is omitted too. Therefore, the correct answer is Choice (B) </span><span style="">surpassing</span><span style="">.&nbsp;</span></span></p><p><span><span style="">Choice (A) </span><span style="">surpassed</span><span style=""> is incorrect unless the word(s) “</span><span style="font-weight: 700;">and (it)</span><span style="">” is/are added before the blank. Choice (C) </span><span style="">have surpassed</span><span style=""> is incorrect for two reasons. First, a coordinating conjunction is needed before the blank. Second, since the event of the unemployment rate soaring to 21.2 percent took place in the past, it doesn’t make sense to put the verb “surpass” in the present tense. Choice (D) </span><span style="">surpass</span><span style=""> is incorrect for the same two reasons. </span></span>​</p>