The county cleared this path and paved it with packed gravel, so they would have a peaceful place to hike and bike. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined portion would NOT be acceptable?

A. path, paving
B. path and then paved
C. path before paving
D. path paved
To find the unacceptable alternative, let’s first figure out the meaning of the original sentence. Two things happened: first the county cleared the path, and then the county paved it. So any answer choices that express this sequence of events would fit the sentence, and thus not be the "wrong" answer that we are looking for here. Answers A, B, and C all express the same idea in slightly different ways, creating perfectly

“The county cleared this path paved it with packed gravel…”