
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Ellen wants to color some of the cells of a $4 \times 4$ grid. She wants to do this so that each colored cell shares at least one side with an uncolored cell and each uncolored cell shares at least one side with a colored cell. What is the largest number of cells she can color?
A) 12
B) 11
C) 10
D) 9
E) 8

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
user