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Out of four different structures of a sentence, only one is supposed to be correct.

  1. To reflect the preparedness of our armed forces to respond to any threat to its national security, a comprehensive joint exercise was carried out by Arabian Army and Air Force.

  2. The Arabian Army and Air Force carried a comprehensive joint exercise, to reflect the preparedness of our armed forces to respond to any threat to its national security.

  3. A comprehensive joint exercise was carried out by Arabian Army and Air Force to reflect on the preparedness of our armed forces to respond to any threats to its national security.

  4. A comprehensive joint exercise was carried out by Arabian Army and Air Force to reflect the preparedness of our armed forces to respond to any threats to its national security.

Now, in structure 3. on is the mistake. In structure 2. it should have been carried out and not carried.

Then, what I understand, 1 and 4 are the exact same sentence having only the clauses interchange positions. So both should be correct grammatically.Am I wrong?

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    You are absolutely correct, and if your instructor told you otherwise, he does not understand English. There are errors in all four paragraphs, but not all in the use of the phrasal verb carry out. Numbers 1 and 4 are both acceptable if we overlook the omission of the definite article before "Arabian".
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Jun 24, 2017 at 7:43
  • Well, setting aside the issue of the definite article before Arabian, #3 can be considered grammatically correct. It's a bit too contemplative for a the stereotypical military operation, but certainly not out of the question, especially if the exercise only included select personnel.
    – Lawrence
    Jun 24, 2017 at 8:13
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    #3 is not ok. to reflect on requires an actor and there is none to be found there. e.g. for the leadership to reflect on...
    – Tᴚoɯɐuo
    Jun 24, 2017 at 11:04

1 Answer 1

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You are correct that both 1 and 4 are possible. The inversion doesn't change the meaning. However, I would choose the 1st sentence as correct since the second one reads as a run-on sentence without pauses and is, thus, quite large and hwrder to understand.

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