In the sentence "The Prime Minister had wide-ranging discussions on the international situation.", the underlined expression needs to be checked. Choose the option that best improves the phrase, or select No improvement if it is already correct.

Introduction / Context:
This sentence improvement question focuses on the correct form of a compound adjective that modifies discussions. The phrase wide ranging is common in political and diplomatic contexts to describe talks that cover many topics. You must decide whether wide ranging has been used correctly or whether one of the alternative forms is more appropriate in standard English.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Sentence: The Prime Minister had wide-ranging discussions on the international situation.
• The underlined part is wide-ranging.
• Options: widely-ranged, wide-ranged, wide-range, and No improvement.
• The intended meaning is that the discussions covered a broad variety of issues.

Concept / Approach:
In English, wide ranging is a fixed compound adjective used to describe something that covers many different subjects or areas. It is normally written as wide ranging or wide-ranging. The alternatives in the options are either adverbs plus participles or incorrectly formed compounds that do not exist in standard usage. Since wide-ranging is already correct and idiomatic here, the best option is No improvement.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Understand the meaning of the sentence. The Prime Minister had discussions that covered many topics in the international situation. Step 2: Recall that wide-ranging discussions is a standard expression used in newspapers, reports, and diplomatic language. Step 3: Evaluate widely-ranged. Widely is an adverb and ranged is a past participle, but the phrase widely-ranged discussions is not a recognised idiom in English. Step 4: Evaluate wide-ranged. The past participle ranged does not usually combine with wide to form an adjective; wide-ranging is the established pattern. Step 5: Evaluate wide-range. This would require a noun after it, as in wide-range discussions, but the usual collocation is wide-ranging discussions, not wide-range discussions. Step 6: Recognise that the original wide-ranging discussions is already correct, so No improvement is the best response.

Verification / Alternative check:
Look at common examples from reliable English sources: wide-ranging reforms, wide-ranging powers, wide-ranging interview. In each case, the hyphenated compound adjective wide-ranging describes something that covers a large scope. Substituting widely-ranged, wide-ranged, or wide-range would sound unfamiliar and be considered incorrect by native speakers. Therefore, the given phrase wide-ranging discussions matches standard usage and does not require modification.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Widely-ranged incorrectly combines an adverb and a past participle in a way that does not produce a recognised adjectival phrase. Wide-ranged is not a standard compound adjective and is seldom, if ever, used. Wide-range would be a noun phrase and would require a different structure, such as discussions of wide range, which still would not be the usual expression.

Common Pitfalls:
Candidates sometimes assume that any underlined portion must contain an error, but sentence improvement questions often include correctly written phrases to test whether you can recognise them. It is important to be familiar with common collocations and fixed expressions so that you choose No improvement with confidence when appropriate. Reading quality English texts regularly will help you internalise such patterns and avoid unnecessary changes.

Final Answer:
The phrase is already correct, so the right choice is No improvement.