Question

Choose the most appropriate pair of words to fill in the blanks in the following sentence from the given options: Forecasting is the collective activity of specialists ___ analyze the information ___ identify what they consider the potential key trends.

• A. that, whom
• B. who, but
• C. whom, so
• D. who, and

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Concept:

• 'Who' is the relative pronoun used for people acting as the subject of the following verb, here referring to 'specialists'.
• 'And' is the simple joining conjunction used when the same subject performs two actions one after another with no contrast or result being shown.

Step 1: Fill the first blank
'Specialists' is the noun being described, and since it refers to people acting as the subject of 'analyze', the correct relative pronoun is 'who', not 'whom' which is used for objects.

Step 2: Fill the second blank
The specialists 'analyze the information' and then 'identify the trends', these are two straightforward actions performed by the same people, needing the simple joining word 'and'.

Step 3: Eliminate the wrong pairs
'That, whom' and 'whom, so' use 'whom' incorrectly as a subject, and 'who, but' wrongly introduces a contrast where none exists in the sentence.

Final Answer: who, and