Question

The county cleared this path and paved it with packed gravel, so they would have a peaceful place to hike and bike.

Which of the following alternatives to the underlined portion would NOT be acceptable?

Answer 1

path paved would not be acceptable

Answer 2

Answer:

D path paved is the right answer

Explanation:

To find the unacceptable alternative, let’s first figure out the meaning of the original sentence. Two things happened: first the county cleared the path, and then the county paved it. So any answer choices that express this sequence of events would fit the sentence, and thus not be the "wrong" answer that we are looking for here. Answers A, B, and C all express the same idea in slightly different ways, creating perfectly grammatical phrases.

Now let’s see what happens when we plug in answer J. We get this weird sentence:  

“The county cleared this path paved it with packed gravel…”