Verbal Ability - Sentence Correction - Discussion

Here attempt is used as a verb, isn't it? So, it should be followed by to.

Correct me, If I'm wrong.

Shouldn't it be "an eye-opener, and attempt at".

How can "attempts" be used when the subject"research study "is singular?

Anyone explain to me, why at?

Thank you @Gaurav.

Hi,

This question is not actually about whether you should use acquaint or acquainting. That is a side-effect of the preposition/particle which follows attempts.

Attempts can be followed by at (and a gerund) if attempts is a noun. Note that it can also use to and the infinitive form of the verb.

I made several attempts at doing that.
If attempts is a verb, it must be followed by to and an infinitive.

It attempts to do that.
The question is testing how the parts of the sentence are parsed. Here, attempts is a verb and must be followed by to and an infinitive.

If the sentence is lengthened, then attempts can be made into a noun, but an additional comma helps:

The research study is an eye-opener, and attempts at acquainting us with the problems of poor nations are ultimately successful.

Reason: Attempt is always followed by 'at'.

And an attempt to.
And attempts at.

Yeah! please need an explanation on parallelism.

How the parallelism is maintained here?

Parallel modifiers : "An eye-opener" and "Attempts at acquainting".

Here, Option B is in simple gerund form and "an eye opener" is an action noun. Shouldn't action noun has to be in parallel with other action noun or complex gerund?

In this, it is given that " research study is an eye-opener" which means it is present tense. Hence in the answer we need to change it with present tense, i.e; "attempts to acquaint" to be changed to "attempts to acquainting".