A 2 min read

The proliferation of so-called cyber squatters, people who register the Internet domain names of high-profile companies in hopes of reselling the rights to those names for a profit, led to passing the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act in 1999, allowing companies to seed up to $100000 in damages against those who register domain names with the sole intent of selling them later.

What does this question test?

This question tests your capability to select the choice that communicates the intended meaning of the sentence in the most effective manner.  It also tests your understanding of the modifier errors pertaining to the use of noun modifiers – which modifier in this case.

What does the sentence mean?

This sentence presents the following information:

1. Proliferation of cyber-squatters led to passage of an act – Anti-cyber-squatting consumer protection act.
2. This act was passed in 1999
3. After this act was passed, the companies were allowed to seed up to a certain dollar amount in damages against the cyber-squatters.

What are the errors in the original sentence?

This sentence has idiomatic error in the expression – led to passing.  The correct expression is “led to the passage of xyz”.

The sentence uses the – X led to passing Y.  This expression is not idiomatically correct.  It should be – X led to the passage of Y.  Consider a similar example:

The flood led to damaging the houses. – Incorrect

The flood led to the damage of the houses.  – Correct

Answer Choice Analysis

Choice A:  Incorrect:  Idiom Error as explained above

Choice B: Incorrect: Modifier Error:  “which” modifier appears to modify “1999”, whereas it should modify “the Protection Act”.  Note here that we cannot consider “Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACCP Act) in 1999” as a noun phrase and hence we cannot say that “which” modifier modifies “ACCP Act”.  This is because “in 1999” is not associated with ACCP Act.  “In 1999” describes the timing of “passage of act”.  Thus, from the structure of this sentence, “which” modifier modifies the closest noun “1999” and hence is incorrect.

Choice C: Correct

Choice D:  Incorrect

1:  Meaning Error:  The intended meaning of the sentence is that the proliferation led to the passage of ACCP Act.  This choice changes this meaning, implying that the proliferation led to the ACCP Act.  Notice the difference between the result – passage of act vs. act itself. Per the original sentence, the act might have been present before 1999, but it was passed after the proliferation of the cyber-squatters.

2:  Pronoun Reference Error:  The antecedent for pronoun “it” is ambiguous.  From the sentence structure, because “it” is the subject of an independent clause, its antecedent is the subject of the preceding clause “proliferation”.  But this does not make sense since logically “it” refers to the ACCP Act.

Choice E:  Incorrect:  Similar errors as in Choice D.

What are the key take-away messages?

1. Correct answer choice should communicate the meaning as intended by the original sentence.
2. “which modifier” (like other noun modifiers) modifies the closest noun nless a noun phrase precedes it and it does not make sense for it to modify the closest noun.

Where can you find more information?

The concept of noun modifiers modifying slightly far away noun is discussed in detail in the concept titled “Modifiers – Relative Pronoun Modifiers”.  This can be accessed by e-GMAT customers in Level 2.  GMAT Like questions in which incorrect choices change the intended meaning of the sentence are covered across all 9 application files and exercises in UGE.