Choose the correct verbal complement for the expression of involuntary reaction:
When reviewing the catastrophic telemetry data, the flight director could not help ________ that human error contributed to the trajectory failure.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. concluding
Answer: concluding. Why not the others: 'to conclude' is a to-infinitive which cannot follow 'cannot help'; 'conclude' would only be grammatical after 'could not help but'; 'concluded' is a past participle or finite past verb that cannot serve as complement to 'help'.
- Step 1: Examine the governing idiom: 'cannot help' / 'could not help' expresses an inability to avoid doing something.
- Step 2: In standard grammar, 'cannot help' is followed directly by a gerund ('-ing' form): 'could not help concluding'. (Note: 'cannot help but' takes a bare infinitive, whereas 'cannot help' takes a gerund).
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