Building on civilizations that preceded them in coastal Peru

[vrajesh.dave]

[editor: this problem has been transcribed incorrectly, and the image is now gone.

see my post below for the correct transcription, in all blue. --ron]

Building on civilizations that preceded them in coastal Peru, the Mochica developed their own elaborate society, based on cultivating such crops like corn and beans, the harvesting of fish and shellfish, and exploiting other wild and domestic resources.


B. based on cultivation of such crops like corn and beans, the harvesting of fish and shellfish, and the exploitation

C. and basing it on the cultivation of crops like corn and beans, harvesting fish and seafood, and the exploiting of

D. and they based it on their cultivation of crops such as corn and beans, the harvest of fish and seafood, and exploiting

E. and they based it on their cultivating such crops such as corn and beans, their harvest of fish and shellfish, and they exploited

OA : B

I do not understand this question at all.

I choose A, since only and A and E use the correct words fish and shellfish.

B, C and D use seafood instead of shellfish.

Can someone please explain this one, since this is not like GMATPrep.

I am attaching the image of the actual GMATPrep, just in case someone feels this is not a GMATPrep question.

[chuckberry007]

Hi vrajesh,

First of all, you typed the wrong answer choices as you can see from the actual GMAT Prep test.

"I choose A, since only and A and E use the correct words fish and shellfish.
B, C and D use seafood instead of shellfish".

What make you think that A and E are correct by using word such as fish and shelfish?
The correct sentence should be parallel. Base on the answer choices, only B provide that parallelism without pronoun ambiguity.

a) cultivating such crops "like"..is wrong, it should be as. The final participle "exploiting is not parallel with the first two gerund (cultivating and harvesting of)

b) All three all parallel.

c) "Basing it" is wrong and like is not use to introduce examples.

d) Pronoun reference they is not clear. Exploiting is not parallel.

e) same as d. cultivating, their harvest and exploited are not parallel.

[vrajesh.dave]

Hi Chuck -

Thanks for catching my error in providing the answer choice. I do agree that A and E are not correct, but I felt that A is a better choice than E. Since I ruled out B, C, and D, since they change the meaning of the sentence with the use of "seafood" rather than shellfish.

Use of shellfish is very specific which use of seafood is a general statement.

Again, I am not sure if such change in meaning should be ignore on GMAT.

thanks
Vrajesh

[2amitprakash]

Hi VRajesh,

The first thing to check is grammar then meaning and lastly concision. You don't know what exactly author expected to say but can make a good guess by eliminating choices that make the sentence nonsensical. Use of seafood in place of shellfish is not making the sentence nonsensical but for sure option B is making it grammatically correct compared to other choices.

Thanks!

[ayushrastogi82]

IMO B but seems there is a typo in B. It has to be 'such crops as' not 'such crops like'. Also, it should be 'exploitation of' instead of just 'exploitation'

[editor: the problem was transcribed incorrectly. please see my correct transcription, below. --ron]

[jasminexxl]

hi, dear Ron, r u there? could u pls tell me:
can i change "like" to " as" in "such crops like corn and beans" (A)?
why "like" is correct here but no "as"?

thx:)

[editor: the problem was transcribed incorrectly. please see my correct transcription, below. --ron]

[RonPurewal]

the correct problem is

Building on civilizations that preceded them in coastal Peru, the Mochica developed their own elaborate society, based on cultivating such crops like corn and beans, the harvesting of fish and shellfish, and exploiting other wild and domestic resources.

a) based on cultivating such crops like corn and beans, the harvesting of fish and shellfish, and exploiting

b) based on the cultivation of such crops as corn and beans, the harvesting of fish and seafood, and the exploitation of

c) and basing it on the cultivation of crops like corn and beans, harvesting fish and seafood, and the exploiting of

d) and they based it on their cultivation of crops such as corn and beans, the harvest of fish and seafood, and exploiting

e) and they based it on their cultivating such crops like corn and beans, their harvest of fish and shellfish, and they exploited

answer is (b).

[RonPurewal]

also note that you can solve this problem via parallelism alone.
every single answer choice except (b) lacks proper parallel structure. since the problem contains a LIST of three things (one of the most obvious parallel structures), this is a nice gift.

a) based on cultivating such crops like corn and beans, the harvesting of fish and shellfish, and exploiting

"THE harvesting" isn't parallel to "exploiting".

("such crops LIKE..." is also a flagrant error; it must be "such crops as...")

b) based on the cultivation of such crops as corn and beans, the harvesting of fish and seafood, and the exploitation of

perfect parallelism.

from right to left:
the exploitation of...
the harvesting of...
the cultivation of...

c) and basing it on the cultivation of crops like corn and beans, harvesting fish and seafood, and the exploiting of

"harvesting" isn't parallel to "THE exploiting".

(also, "...and basing" is not a properly constructed modifier)

d) and they based it on their cultivation of crops such as corn and beans, the harvest of fish and seafood, and exploiting

worst parallelism ever.
no two of "THEIR cultivation", "THE harvest", and "exploiting" are parallel.

e) and they based it on their cultivating such crops like corn and beans, their harvest of fish and shellfish, and they explited

"they exploited" isn't parallel to the other two.

[RonPurewal]

from the original post:

I choose A, since only and A and E use the correct words fish and shellfish.

wrong priorities.

remember, folks: GRAMMAR HAS A HIGHER PRIORITY THAN WORD CHOICE.

the choices with "fish and shellfish" all have flagrant errors of grammar/parallelism/idiom, so you are forced to choose one of the answers with "fish and seafood".

[rx_11]

Hi, instructors,

I have some questions about B.

Can you explain why we should use "based" in B, not "basing"? I think "based....."clause in B is a participle(and it has a COMMA), which should modify the previous whole clause. Thus, using Past Participle sounds illogical. Is "basing" better?

[RonPurewal]

Hi, instructors,

I have some questions about B.

Can you explain why we should use "based" in B, not "basing"? I think "based....."clause in B is a participle(and it has a COMMA), which should modify the previous whole clause. Thus, using Past Participle sounds illogical. Is "basing" better?

whoa, no.

past participles function as adjectives; they ALWAYS modify nouns. it's actually impossible for a past participle to modify a whole clause.

you're thinking of the rule for "clause + , + -ING", which doesn't extend to past participles.

--

also --

OFFICIALLY CORRECT ANSWERS ARE CORRECT -- don't question them!


i.e., "why is this correct?" or "how does this work?" are valid questions to ask about official answers.

"is this correct?" is not a productive question to ask about an official answer -- the answer is always yes.

"is this wrong?" is not a productive question to ask about an official answer -- the answer is always no.

[manassingh]

Hi Ron,
I have a question specially related to usage of -
such crops like corn and beans

I did not select B, becuase of usage of word such . In GMAT every when ever you want to give example, you should preceed the example with such . But here you have such crops like corn and beans. Here corn and beans are exmples, hence i was expecting such before them but such is before crops. can you please explain what kind of usage is this ?


Many thanks

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,
I have a question specially related to usage of -
such crops like corn and beans

I did not select B, becuase of usage of word such . In GMAT every when ever you want to give example, you should preceed the example with such . But here you have such crops like corn and beans. Here corn and beans are exmples, hence i was expecting such before them but such is before crops. can you please explain what kind of usage is this ?


Many thanks

did you read the big warning in giant red letters at the start of the first post? the warning that said "this is an incorrect transcription of the problem"?

go back and look at my correct transcription of the problem, a little bit farther down the thread -- it's written in all blue text.

--

incidentally, "such X's like Y" is not a correct idiom, so you could eliminate any choices that might contain that construction.

two constructions that are idiomatically correct, but with differing meanings, are
* such X's as Y --> this construction means that Y is a typical example of the X's being described.
* X's like Y --> this construction refers to other X's (i.e., not Y itself) that are actually similar to Y in some important and relevant way.

[cgoyal.gmat]

Hi Ron,
Why is "harvesting" not considered parallel to "exploiting". Both seem to be ending with -ING.

Thanks.

[messi10]

Hi cgoyal.gmat,

Hi Ron,
Why is "harvesting" not considered parallel to "exploiting". Both seem to be ending with -ING.

I am assuming that you are referring to answer choice C. "harvesting" is acting as a verb whereas the "the exploiting of..." is a complex gerund.

Not all -ing forms are automatically parallel to each other. You have to check what role they are playing. As a matter of fact, there are two types of gerunds: simple gerunds and complex gerunds. The point to note is that simple gerunds cannot be parallel to complex gerunds even though they are both -ing forms.

As Ron has pointed out, the correct answer choice (B) has parallel elements:
the exploitation of...
the harvesting of...
the cultivation of...

If my understanding is correct, "the exploitation of..." and "the cultivation of..." are both action nouns. "the harvesting of..." is a complex gerund. Action nouns and complex gerunds can be parallel to each other. To quickly summerize:

Simple gerunds can only be parallel to simple gerunds
Complex gerunds and action nouns can be parallel to one another in addition to being parallel to each other.

If you have the Manhattan SC guide, this concept has been explained very well in the advanced chapters

Regards

Sunil