Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the convention… | Verbal SAT Question

One might assume that when mathematician and scholar Charles Babbage joined with 55 other renowned British writers in 1837 to petition the US Congress for copyright __________ prestige of the signatories and strength of their arguments in defense of writers’ “reputation and property” would prompt swift reform, but this reform did not occur until the International Copyright Act of 1891 was passed over a half century later.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

protection and the

protection, the

protection, so the

protection. The