Improve the bracketed part of the sentence by choosing the best option: As management we are accountable (to) the Board of Directors.

Introduction / Context:
Sentence improvement questions test a learner's command of prepositions, collocations, and natural English usage. In this sentence, the focus is on the correct preposition used with the adjective "accountable." We need to decide whether the bracketed word "to" should be replaced or retained to make the sentence grammatically correct and idiomatic.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Sentence: As management we are accountable (to) the Board of Directors.
• The bracketed preposition is "to."
• We must decide if "to" should be replaced with another preposition or left unchanged.
• The context is corporate governance and responsibility.

Concept / Approach:
The standard collocation in English is "accountable to someone" for responsibility and "accountable for something" when referring to the specific matter. For example, "The manager is accountable to the board for the company's performance." Here, the sentence describes the relationship of responsibility between management and the Board of Directors, so "to" is the correct preposition. None of the alternative prepositions fit this relationship as naturally or correctly as "to."

Step-by-Step Solution:

Step 1: Identify the adjective–preposition combination: "accountable to." Step 2: Recall standard usage: one is "accountable to a person or authority" and "accountable for a mistake or result." Step 3: Apply this to the sentence. Management is responsible to the Board of Directors, not "towards" or "with" or "against" it. Step 4: Evaluate potential substitutes: "accountable towards the Board" sounds unnatural; "accountable with the Board" is incorrect; "accountable against the Board" is clearly wrong. Step 5: Conclude that the best choice is to leave the bracketed word unchanged and select "no improvement."

Verification / Alternative check:
We can consider example sentences from formal English: "Public officials are accountable to the people," "The CEO is accountable to the shareholders," and "As employees, we are accountable to our supervisors." All these follow the pattern "accountable to + person or body." Rewriting our sentence as "As management we are accountable to the Board of Directors" fits this pattern perfectly, confirming that the original preposition is correct.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

Option A: "towards" usually indicates direction or attitude, not formal responsibility; "accountable towards" is not an accepted collocation. Option B: "with" is used for association or accompaniment, not for accountability relationships. Option C: "against" shows opposition or conflict, which is not intended here. Option D: "for" would work in a different structure, such as "accountable to the Board for the results," but not as a replacement for "to."

Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes overcorrect when they see a word in brackets, assuming it must be wrong. However, sentence improvement questions frequently include correctly used words, and the right answer is "no improvement." Another pitfall is choosing prepositions by sound rather than by memorised collocations. It is helpful to learn common adjective–preposition pairs like "responsible for," "interested in," "good at," and "accountable to."

Final Answer:
The correct choice is no improvement, so the sentence should remain: "As management we are accountable to the Board of Directors."