satishchandra wrote: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 explited

[spoiler]OA:B[/spoiler]

I was told that "based" is an adjective and any modifier introduced with an adjective must be a noun modifier
In the example above "based on cultivating such crops XXX" modifies the noun "the Mochica"
If I reframe the sentence, it may look as the Mochica is based on cultivating such crops XXX
If meaning of Mochica is person or group, I don't think it makes sence. How can option 'B' still be correct.
I know D and E have parallelism issues. No option is looking good to me in this question. Experts please help.

IMO

VERB-ed modifiers modifies the closest noun if not preceded by COMMA. But if they are preceded by COMMA then they can modifiy far away nouns as well. Therefore, we have to check whether it makes sense for BASED MODIFIERS TO MODIFY far away NOUN and IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING NOUN - if it can modify both then we have ambiguity. In this can BASED ON cannot modify MOCHINA - if that were the case, it would mean MOCHINA WAS BASED ON CULTIVATING etc (non-sensical). Therefore here BASED ON ..is modifying SOCIETY only.

Let's see some more example to understand better:

1) John Patrick Shanley is set to create an opera based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play (based modifies OPERA) - correct
2) From the 9th to 15th centuries, feudalism was a form of society based on ownership of land (based modifies SOCIETY)- correct
3)From the 9th to 15th centuries, feudalism was a form of society, based on ownership of land (based modifies "feudalism was a form of society". It means feudalism was a form of society and that was based on ownership of land. Note here BASED ON can modify BOTH FEUDALISM and SOCEITY without any ambiguity as Sentence says 'feudalism was a form of society' ie feudalism = society. Therefore there is no ambiguity in this sentence - correct

satishchandra wrote: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 explited

[spoiler]OA:B[/spoiler]

I was told that "based" is an adjective and any modifier introduced with an adjective must be a noun modifier
In the example above "based on cultivating such crops XXX" modifies the noun "the Mochica"
If I reframe the sentence, it may look as the Mochica is based on cultivating such crops XXX
If meaning of Mochica is person or group, I don't think it makes sence. How can option 'B' still be correct.
I know D and E have parallelism issues. No option is looking good to me in this question. Experts please help.

COMMA + PAST PARTICIPLE generally modifies the CLOSEST preceding noun.
In B, based modifies society (the closest preceding noun).
For more about this SC, please check my posts here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/sentence-cor ... 86697.html