The Acts of Trade and Navigation, passed by Parliament to protect Brit

The Acts of Trade and Navigation, passed by Parliament to protect British trade with their colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England, and that certain colonial exports be shipped only to England.

A .passed by Parliament to protect British trade with their colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England
Wrong. "their" is incorrect. ==> British trade is singular ==> "its colonies" is correct.

B. which Parliament passed to protect its trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, all imports to the colonies come from England
Wrong. the meaning is distorted. It's like "Parliament passed the acts to protect Parliament's trade".

C. which Parliament passed to protect Britain’s trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies was carried on British ships, all imports to the colonies come from England
Wrong.
(1) "The acts which Parliament passed" is wrong, because "the acts" is subject, "which" modifies "The acts" ==> After "which" should be verb. For example: The Acts which were passed by Parliaments.
(2) Idiom: require that X do Y ==> the "infinitive without TO" form of the verb to be is always just be, not is, are, was,...

D. passed by Parliament to protect Britain’s trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England,
Correct.
(1) "passed by Parliament....colonies" modifies "the Acts"
(2) Correct idiom: required that X be carried ......

E. which were passed by Parliament to protect British trade with its colonies, made it a requirement that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England
Wrong. "made it a requirement" sounds awkward.

Waiting for the OA.

IMO answer is D

B, C, and E are out since which cause the statement to be fragment.

A has a pronoun error their with no antecedent. British serves as an adjective for this choice.

Thanks pqhai for pointing out the error in E, but still i feel that there is no antecedent of its in British and even if made it a requirement sounds awkward, still due to no antecedent of its in D, i find E a better option.
Can you please clear my doubt...
_________________

Hi ankurgupta.

My thought for your doubt is:

In the phrase "to protect Britain's trade with its colonies", "its" refers to a country - Britain very clearly.
For example: Because Mary was absent, the teacher shared Mary's lunch to her classmates.
"her" definitely refers to Mary. You cannot say "her" refers to "the teacher". That does not make sense, because "classmates" should be compared to Mary, not the teacher.

Please correct if I'm wrong.

Hi pqhai,

In the example you gave, Mary has been introduced, but it the given question, Britain has no where been talked about, its just Britain's trade, so its should refer to Britain's trade ... IMO
_________________

Hi ankurgupta.

If you think "its" refers to Britain's trade, "its" will also refer to "British trade" in E? => how comes E is better than D?

Thats what ... i think that no answer is correct, i am not supporting E also ... just that i find E better than D
_________________

But your think or what you do feel about a question could not be true for the GMAT.

E really goes so far from the truth



which were passed by Parliament: is wordy, is quite clear even not considering at all the rest of the phrase

made it: it in my logic refers to the act that has no sense because tha act by itself do nothing. The act is an expression of the parliament's will, then this will is exteriorized in an act that does something in turns.......so E is incorrect though is parallel with usage of THAT

Moreover, which is wrong because which Parliament passed seems that someone other entity says to the Parliament to pass something not the parliament itself wants to pass the act. The Parliament is the vertex of a democracy so nothing is above the parliament. So the other choices have no much sense

Hope this helps you
_________________

Pronoun ambiguity on the GMAT is one of the most complicated topics you can find in the test.

D. passed by Parliament to protect Britain’s trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England,

Both "its" refer to Britain because it's the only possible noun that makes this sentence work. Example:
passed by Parliament to protect Britain’s trade with its (of the Parliament) colonies => no sense.

Even though as you say, ankurgupta03, that there is no clear clear antecedent, the meaning of the sentence is what helps you here.

Take a look at an official problem, where even thoug "they" seems ambiguos, the meaning of the sentence clarifies what it refers to: while-depressed-property-values-can-hurt-some-large-91967.html

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/22297036[/vimeo]

Thursdays With Ron - March 31 2011

Sentence Correction: "Which" Modifiers
Sentence Correction: Ambiguous Pronouns

Check it out
_________________

The Acts of Trade and Navigation, which Parliament passed to protect its trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, all imports to the colonies come from England, and that certain colonial exports be shipped only to England.

If you remove the colored part the remaining is not a complete sentence and that's why it is a fragment.

But I also got D not through the fragment thing.

The Acts of Trade and Navigation, passed by Parliament to protect British trade with their colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England, and that certain colonial exports be shipped only to England.

A .passed by Parliament to protect British trade with their colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England
B. which Parliament passed to protect its trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, all imports to the colonies come from England
C. which Parliament passed to protect Britain’s trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies was carried on British ships, all imports to the colonies come from England
D. passed by Parliament to protect Britain’s trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England,
E. which were passed by Parliament to protect British trade with its colonies made it a requirement that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England





The notion that B, C, and E are rendered fragments because they use 'which' is erroneous.

1. Remove all the modifiers starting with 'which' until the comma after colonies. Bring the verb close to the subject. In all the three cases, the subject and verb are solidly available there (bolded words). Therefore, why would they be called fragments? Of course, there may be other errors in these choices, but they can't be dislodged as fragments in the least
_________________

The Acts of Trade and Navigation, passed by Parliament to protect British trade with their colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England, and that certain colonial exports be shipped only to England.

A .passed by Parliament to protect British trade with their colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England Pronoun Error
B. which Parliament passed to protect its trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, all imports to the colonies come from England "its" refers to parliament...changes meaning
C. which Parliament passed to protect Britain’s trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies was carried on British ships, all imports to the colonies come from England Subjunctive rule not followed
D. passed by Parliament to protect Britain’s trade with its colonies, required that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England, Correct
E. which were passed by Parliament to protect British trade with its colonies, made it a requirement that all trade between England and its colonies be carried on British ships, that all imports to the colonies come from England Avoidable

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
_________________