gmat_perfect wrote:Federal legislation establishing a fund for the cleanup of sites damaged by toxic chemicals permits compensating state governments for damage to their natural resources but does not allow claims for injury to people.

(A) compensating state governments for damage to
(B) compensating state governments for the damaging of
(C) giving state governments compensation for damaging
(D) giving compensation to state governments for the damage of
(E) the giving of compensation to state governments for damaging

[spoiler]OA: A[/spoiler]

permits ...so 'giving' not required. C - awkward meaning "giving state gov compensation' - sentence intends 'giving compensation to state gov'

'the damaging of' is not better than 'damage to'.

Secondly, 'for damage to their natural resources but does not allow claims for injury to people' => X but not Y here X and Y in llel.

gmat_perfect wrote:Federal legislation establishing a fund for the cleanup of sites damaged by toxic chemicals permits compensating state governments for damage to their natural resources but does not allow claims for injury to people.

(A) compensating state governments for damage to
(B) compensating state governments for the damaging of
(C) giving state governments compensation for damaging
(D) giving compensation to state governments for the damage of
(E) the giving of compensation to state governments for damaging

[spoiler]OA: A[/spoiler]

Please explain why are the wrong options wrong.

Thanks.

Both C and E make it sound like the state governments are damaging their own natural resources, which is incorrect, so those choices can be eliminated. The correct idiom is "damage to," not "damage of," which allows D to be eliminated. B is wordy and awkward; "the damaging of" has "of" instead of "to," and unnecessarily uses the definite article and a gerund ("the damaging") where a single word ("damage") performs exactly the same function. Therefore, the sentence is correct as written.

Andrea,

'compensating'is a simple gerund. 'claims ' is a action noun.
simple gerund should not be made parallel to action noun.......I read it in MGMAT SC...

can't we apply the same rule and eliminate A and B. Pl. reply

"claims" is not being compared to the sole word "compensating". Rather, "claims" is being compared to "compensating state governments". Subtle difference.

ansumania wrote:Andrea,

'compensating'is a simple gerund. 'claims ' is a action noun.
simple gerund should not be made parallel to action noun.......I read it in MGMAT SC...

can't we apply the same rule and eliminate A and B. Pl. reply

Even I selected E based on above rule.

E's use of "for damaging" implies that the compensation was given to the state governments in exchange for the governments' damaging of natural resources. We can logically say that the state governments are not the ones who caused the damage, so E's meaning is incorrect.
Every choice here would have a gerund parallel to "claims," because C, D, and E all have "giving," while A and B have "compensating." Using two or more words-- "giving compensation," "the giving of compensation"-- where just one word ("compensating") will do is a classic GMAT error.
I can't comment one way or the other on the MGMAT rule you're discussing here, because frankly, I'm not familiar with it. I don't use MGMAT texts and I haven't learned that rule in any other context. But regardless, here you have no choice but to compare a gerund to the noun "claims," so A is the choice that does that without any other issues.