<p>The sentence in question is: "<span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);">Despite having hired 20 more employees for the factory, the production manager still thinks the facility is understaffed.</span>"<br></p><p><strong>Identifying the Adverbial Clause:</strong></p><p><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);">The phrase "</span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);">Despite having hired 20 more employees for the factory</span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);">" is a participle phrase that functions as an adverbial phrase, modifying the main clause of the sentence. It indicates the reason or condition for the production manager's belief that the facility is still understaffed. </span><br></p><p><span style="font-weight: 600;"></span></p><p><strong>Reducing the Adverbial Clause:</strong></p><p>The full adverbial clause, if not reduced, would be: "Despite the production manager has hired 20 more <span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);">employees for the factory</span>." The adverbial clause can be reduced to the adverbial phrase.</p><p>Here's a step-by-step breakdown:</p><ol><li><p><strong>Identify the Subject and Verb in the Adverbial Clause:</strong> The subject is "the production manager", and the verb is "has hired."</p></li><li><p><strong>Identify Redundancy:</strong> The main clause is about "every copywriting." When we reduce the adverbial clause, the subject "the production manager" in the adverbial clause becomes redundant and can be omitted.</p></li><li><p><strong>Change the Verb:</strong> The verb "has hired" is in active voice, so we change it to its present participle form "having hired " to create a reduced adverbial clause.</p></li></ol><p><strong>Resulting Reduced Adverbial Clause:</strong> "<span style="">Despite having hired 20 more employees for the factory,</span>".</p><p><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87);">The correct answer is (A) "having hired". </span></p>