Sentence Correction

Dear instructors,
I am confused with rise and raise, please help to clarify it.

OG16 SC #16
Rising inventories, when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales,
can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.
(A) when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead
(B) when not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, possibly leads
(C) when they were unaccompanied by corresponding sales increases, can lead
(D) if not accompanied by correspondingly increased sales, possibly leads
(E) if not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead

OA is [spoiler]E
[/spoiler]

IMO, rising inventories is an action, so it is singular subject, that's why I eliminate E, and pick up B
I cannot understand why rising inventories is a plural subject, why rising is a modifier of inventories, why it is not an action phrase?

please help
Thanks a lot

have a nice day
>_~

Hi

The answer lies partially in your question. 'Rising' when followed by a noun acts as an adjective while raising may act as a participle. The sentence, by its meaning, conveys a result of rise in inventories. If it were raising instead of rising, it would be more appropriate to follow it up closely with the doer of the action.

Hope that clarifies.

Difference Between Rising and Raising:

Rising - going upwards or increasing - Rising merely conveys that something is moving in an upward direction, for some reason.

The balloon was quickly rising. The rising sun lit up the landscape.

Raising - making something move upwards or increase - Raising is taking action to make something move in an upward direction.

That machine is used for raising cars. As he was raising himself from the floor, John wondered why he had fallen.

So Rising inventories conveys that for whatever reason the level of inventories is increasing, rather than that someone is making them increase.

Raising inventories would convey that someone is actively making inventories increase.

Regarding your reason for eliminating E, actually both Rising inventories and Raising inventories are singular subjects.

In Rising inventories, inventories is the subject noun and Rising modifies inventories.

In Raising inventories, Raising is the subject and inventories is the object of Raising.

So they both require a singular form verb.

leads is clearly the singular form of to lead.

At the same time, the helping verb - main verb combination, can lead, is also in singular form.

He can lead the group. is correct.

So Rising inventories can lead to production cutbacks. is correct.