By developing the Secure Digital Music Initiative, the recording indus

Hi Laksh47,

To add to EducationAisle's point: there is no rule that says that a that must always point to the closest noun. Your approach was correct: we always start by looking for more reliable splits, and take calls on things like ambiguity only if we can't find those more reliable splits.

Hello AjiteshArun EducationAisle! Is it okay to conclude that 'that' can jump prepositional phrases to refer to the second closest noun.

Not just the second closest noun; could be third or the fourth noun as well; basically whatever noun makes logical sense.

choice A is a hard sentence to understand. it is hard because "that will..." modifies a noun which is far from "that will..." clause . a relative clause can modify a far noun. but this case is inferior. inferior case could be incorrect if other choices are better and could be correct if other choices are worse.

choice b,c,d and e contain clear errors and after realizing these clear errors, we return to choice A and reread it. now, we realize that it is hard to understand because it contain a far modifier of noun. only when we realize why choice a is hard to understand, we are confident that choice a is correct

this sc problem contain no hard grammar point. but it is not easy because we need to analyse the meaning. this is the case gmat likes.

Hi Argp,

To (again ) add to EducationAisle's point: we should consider ambiguity as well. So the answer to your question is "yes, but".

Ambiguity is not an absolute error, but we never ignore it completely.

Dear Experts,

Someone told me that "that" must modify preceding noun or noun before the last preposition. (Please, review the formula below)

" ________Noun1 of Noun2 of Noun3 that _________"

In this case, that cannot refer to Noun1. That can only refer to Noun2 and Noun3


Could any experts explain this ?

Thank you in advance

Hey not an expert but it’s totally possible that it refers to noun1

Pardon the meaningless sentences below:


The Supreme Court of India in Delhi that is the highest court ….
In this sentence that cannot refer to Delhi or India. Only where can.

Besides the point
Supreme Court has no identity by itself. But when I add of India, I essentially give it an identity. So it’s an essential modifier. Similarly a prepositional in India, identifies the place where the court is located. Since there is only Supreme Court we know that “in Delhi” is not needed. However hypothetically if there would have been 2 in different cities then Delhi would be essential too.
That said, whatever follows that refers to the whole “Noun of Noun in Noun”

Look at the relative pronoun and the verb that follows and see if it makes sense with more than one noun in the Noun of Noun of Noun. If it does then the statement is ambiguous. If it makes sense with only one Noun in the noun phrase, and the meaning is right, then it can reach far away nouns.

There is good article from egmat on far away nouns. Look it up on the club.
Cheers

Posted from my mobile device

In option A, is "that" not modifying the Internet? I am really confused.

Not at all! There is no rule that "that" should always modify the nearest word.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses modifier properties of "that", their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

We have allowed to jump "that" too far in the option A, kicking off "touch rule", if any, beside Need to accept the justification, whatsoever, as it is Official Q.

A —> associations (subject) … hope (main verb) to create (parallel verb)… and (parallel marker) foil (parallel verb) … and (parallel marker) distribute (parallel verb)…
B, C, D and E lack this parallel structure. Indeed, those three parallel verbs change their tense and mood.
Hope this helps

[quote="cool_jonny009"]By developing the Secure Digital Music Initiative, the recording industry associations of North America, Japan, and Europe hope to create a standardized way of distributing songs and full-length recordings on the Internet that will protect copyright holders and foil the many audio pirates who copy and distribute digital music illegally.


(A) of distributing songs and full-length recordings on the Internet that will protect copyright holders and foil the many audio pirates who copy and distribute

(B) of distributing songs and full-length recordings on the Internet and to protect copyright holders and foiling the many audio pirates copying and distributing

(C) for distributing songs and full-length recordings on the Internet while it protects copyright holders and foils the many audio pirates who copy and distribute

(D) to distribute songs and full-length recordings on the Internet while they will protect copyright holders and foil the many audio pirates copying and distributing

(E) to distribute songs and full-length recordings on the Internet and it will protect copyright holders and foiling the many audio pirates who copy and distribute

Experts please help.
In choice A : the that is a modifier ? and if so then that would mean this particular case is an exception to the touch rule since the that is reaching back the of.. and on.. prepositional phrases to modify the [a standardized way] .
is this correct understanding ?

There are huge number of other officially correct sentences, wherein that does not modify the nearest word.

For instance, in this question, that modifies the really faraway noun unique system.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses modifier issues of "that", their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

I got down to A and C as my last two options. I eliminated C because of meaning shift as per the answers above. Working on my ability to replace pronouns. is the below correct? Clearly non-sensical once the pronouns are replaced.

(C) for distributing songs and full-length recordings on the Internet while it protects copyright holders and foils the many audio pirates who copy and distribute - Meaning shift.

(C) for distributing songs and full-length recordings on the Internet while [the Secure Digital Music Initiative] protects copyright holders and foils the many audio pirates who copy and distribute - Meaning shift.

Personally, I think this is less clear vs A which communicates that the "standardised way" will protect & foil etc

Thanks in advance.