To protect English Manufacturers of woolen goods both against American

Hello Everyone!

Let's take a look at this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our choices to the correct one! To begin, let's take a quick glance at each option and highlight anything that seems different about each one in orange:

To protect English Manufacturers of woolen goods both against American and Irish competition, England passed the Woolens Act of 1698, which prohibited the export of woolen cloth beyond a colony`s borders.

(A) To protect English Manufacturers of woolen goods both against American and Irish competition, England passed the Woolens Act of 1698
(B) In order to protect English manufacturers of woolen goods against both American and Irish competition, England passed the Woolen Act of 1698
(C) In order to protect English manufactures of woolen goods against American, as well as against Irish, competition, the Woolen Act of 1698 was passed by England
(D) For protecting English manufacturers of woolen goods against American, as well as Irish, competition, England passed the Woolen Act of 1698
(E) For the protection of English manufacturers of woolen goods against both American and Irish competition, the Woolen Act of 1698, passed by England

After a quick glance, there are a few things we can focus on to narrow down our choices:

1. To protect / In order to protect / For protecting / For the protection of
2. both against American and Irish competition / against both American and Irish competition / against American, as well as against Irish, competition
3. England passed the Woolen Act of 1698 / the Woolen Act of 1698 was passed by England / the Woolen Act of 1698, passed by England

Let's start with #2 on our list: both against / against both / against...as well as against.... This is an issue of parallelism. We need to make sure that both items that English manufacturers want protection from are equal:

(A) To protect English Manufacturers of woolen goods both against American and Irish competition, England passed the Woolens Act of 1698
This is INCORRECT because it's not parallel! By placing the word "both" before the verb "against," we need to repeat the verb for it to be parallel.

both against American and against Irish competition = PARALLEL
both against American and Irish competition = NOT PARALLEL

(B) In order to protect English manufacturers of woolen goods against both American and Irish competition, England passed the Woolen Act of 1698
This is OKAY for now because it is parallel. By placing the word "both" after the verb "against," we don't need to repeat the verb because it's outside the "both X and Y" construction.

(C) In order to protect English manufactures of woolen goods against American, as well as against Irish, competition, the Woolen Act of 1698 was passed by England
This is INCORRECT because the use of "as well as" is wrong. You cannot substitute the phrase "as well as" for "and." They mean two different things! "As well as" means that you are putting emphasis on one option over the other, whereas "and" gives them equal importance. We need both countries to be equal here, so we need to use "and" instead.

(D) For protecting English manufacturers of woolen goods against American, as well as Irish, competition, England passed the Woolen Act of 1698
This is also INCORRECT because the use of "as well as" is wrong. You cannot substitute the phrase "as well as" for "and." They mean two different things! "As well as" means that you are putting emphasis on one option over the other, whereas "and" gives them equal importance. We need both countries to be equal here, so we need to use "and" instead.

(E) For the protection of English manufacturers of woolen goods against both American and Irish competition, the Woolen Act of 1698, passed by England
This is OKAY for now. By placing the word "both" after the verb "against," we don't need to repeat the verb because it's outside the "both X and Y" construction.

We can eliminate options A, C, and D because they do not use parallel structure or the proper wording to show intended meaning.

Now that we have it narrowed down to only 2 options, let's look more closely at each one to find any problems. I've added in the remainder of the sentence to help us catch any potential issues. Here's how they break down:

(B) In order to protect English manufacturers of woolen goods against both American and Irish competition, England passed the Woolen Act of 1698, which prohibited the export of woolen cloth beyond a colony`s borders.
This is CORRECT. The phrase "In order to protect" is idiomatically correct, the phrase "against both American and Irish competition" is parallel, and the phrase "England passed the Woolen Act of 1698" is both in active voice and an independent clause. This sentence has everything we need!

(E) For the protection of English manufacturers of woolen goods against both American and Irish competition, the Woolen Act of 1698, passed by England, which prohibited the export of woolen cloth beyond a colony`s borders.
This sentence is INCORRECT for a couple reasons. First, it's not really idiomatically correct to start a phrase with "for the protection of" because it's passive voice. Also, if we look carefully, there is no verb in this sentence! This is actually one very long sentence fragment!


There you have it - option B is the correct choice! It uses parallel structure, active voice, and a clear subject and verb!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.