Select the preposition that correctly completes the standard academic collocation:

Evolutionary anthropologists attribute the rapid encephalization of early hominins ________ dietary shifts and cooperative social hunting strategies.

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: D. to

Answer: to. Why not the others: 'with', 'for', and 'towards' do not pair with 'attribute' to express causality in standard English syntax.
  1. Step 1: Identify the governing verb: 'attribute' follows the transitive complementation pattern 'attribute [effect] to [cause]'.
  2. Step 2: The required dependent preposition is 'to'.

Practise more Relative Clauses, Prepositional Complements, and Parallelism.

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