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by hwiya320 » Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:40 pm
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 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


OA is B
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by brb588 » Mon Dec 08, 2008 9:38 pm
It's B. That's the only one who's list is parallel.
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by ronniecoleman » Mon Dec 08, 2008 9:46 pm
IMO B

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.

such crops like....Wrong

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

CORRECT

c) and basing it on the cultivation of crops like corn and beans, harvesting fish and seafood, and the exploiting of
basing it---awkward
cultivation ... harvesting.... not parallel

d) and they based it on their cultivation of crops such as corn and beans, the harvest of fish and seafood, and exploiting
exploiting --- not parallel...
require a noun phrase


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

Simply OUT
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by hwiya320 » Tue Dec 09, 2008 6:03 am
I was at the frustrated point of my gmat study and missed an easy one. I realized the problem as soon as I posted the question.

It threw me off because I focused on cultivation - harvestING - exploitation
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by rah_pandey » Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:10 am
How is cultivation parallel to harvesting and exploiting?
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by swashbuckle » Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:47 am
can anyone explain why the OA is 'B'?

cultivation is parallel to exploitation, but how is cultivation parallel to harvesting?

when you consider it from the perspective of being idiomatic, 'B' is the best choice because the usage of 'such...as' is correct.

but in terms of parallelism, it is wrong?
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by swashbuckle » Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:50 am
ok i just took a clearer look at the answer, 'B' is indeed parallel because of the following structure:

"the cultivation OF", "the harvesting OF", "the exploitation OF"

but i must admit that the cultivation vs harvesting vs exploitation part got me confused[/u]
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by gmatpill » Tue Jul 28, 2009 10:05 am
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 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


hwiya320, I was not satisfied with some of the explanations I saw, so here's my take:

Step 1: We quickly recognize that the underlined portion is next to a comma. Ask ourselves: "What is this underlined phrase describing?"
It's describing "society"

Step 2: we continue reading: "based on cultivating such crops like corn and beans"--and notice something wrong..."such crops like" should be "such crops AS"....so we already know (A) is incorrect.

Step 3: even we if didn't know the correct idiom, we continue reading and we see a series of commas with word "and" [..a, b, and c]
Are they all consistent?

based on:
a) cultivating...
b) the harvesting...
c) and exploiting...

AHA! The GMAT guys purposely did this to throw you off. Notice they all end in "ing"...so the average test taker would think this is OK.

WRONG!

Notice some of these "-ING" words are verbs and some are nouns!
You should see these keywords as:
based on:
a) cultivating corn----[verb]
b) [the act of] harvesting of fish [noun]
c) exploiting other resources [verb]

So even if you missed step 2)..you should have seen inconsistency here in step 3)

step 4: go through the other answer choices..only (B) has consistency in the 3 items.

based on:
a) the cultivation of
b) the harvesting of
c) the exploitation of

so you should be CONFIDENT that B is your answer and move on to your next question.
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by navdeepbajwa » Sat Dec 05, 2009 1:01 pm
gmatpill wrote:

Notice some of these "-ING" words are verbs and some are nouns!
You should see these keywords as:
based on:
a) cultivating corn----[verb]
b) [the act of] harvesting of fish [noun]
c) exploiting other resources [verb]
How ING is acting as a verb it is a participle and cannot act as a verb
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by GmatVerbal » Sat Dec 05, 2009 6:33 pm
Cultivating crops -> When did crops start cultivation?

But what is wrong with "Cultivating of crops"?
navdeepbajwa wrote:
gmatpill wrote:

Notice some of these "-ING" words are verbs and some are nouns!
You should see these keywords as:
based on:
a) cultivating corn----[verb]
b) [the act of] harvesting of fish [noun]
c) exploiting other resources [verb]
How ING is acting as a verb it is a participle and cannot act as a verb
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by tanviet » Mon Dec 07, 2009 3:49 am
B is correct

comma+ed modify the noun immediately preceding the comma or modify entire previous clause. In this case, "based it..." modify the noun immediately preceding comma.
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by komal » Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:57 am
hwiya320 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.

b) Based on the cultivation of such crops as corn and beans, the harvesting of fish and seafood, and the exploitation of - Parallel form is correct

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

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

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

(b) is correct answer choice
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by xsork » Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:55 pm
Hey guys,

I am clear with the parallelism going on here. However, the comma after "society" throws me off. Is it just me, or does the sentence not make sense with that comma there?

Please help. It bugs me >.<
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by mohtab » Wed Aug 15, 2012 2:20 am
I know English very well just because I lived abroad, but my grammar sucks since I haven't had academically, so sorry if I ask stupid questions:

About A: the official guide says: " The second item in the series violates the parallelism required for the series..."

Is that because that "the harvesting" is a gerund/noun and "on cultivating" & "and exploiting" are verbs?

Also about B: I still couldn't completely fathom how harvestING, is parrallel to cultivation; are you saying, its because that they are all 3 non-verbs and in noun forms?

gmatpill 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.

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


hwiya320, I was not satisfied with some of the explanations I saw, so here's my take:

Step 1: We quickly recognize that the underlined portion is next to a comma. Ask ourselves: "What is this underlined phrase describing?"
It's describing "society"

Step 2: we continue reading: "based on cultivating such crops like corn and beans"--and notice something wrong..."such crops like" should be "such crops AS"....so we already know (A) is incorrect.

Step 3: even we if didn't know the correct idiom, we continue reading and we see a series of commas with word "and" [..a, b, and c]
Are they all consistent?

based on:
a) cultivating...
b) the harvesting...
c) and exploiting...

AHA! The GMAT guys purposely did this to throw you off. Notice they all end in "ing"...so the average test taker would think this is OK.

WRONG!

Notice some of these "-ING" words are verbs and some are nouns!
You should see these keywords as:
based on:
a) cultivating corn----[verb]
b) [the act of] harvesting of fish [noun]
c) exploiting other resources [verb]

So even if you missed step 2)..you should have seen inconsistency here in step 3)

step 4: go through the other answer choices..only (B) has consistency in the 3 items.

based on:
a) the cultivation of
b) the harvesting of
c) the exploitation of

so you should be CONFIDENT that B is your answer and move on to your next question.
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by babuxavier » Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:27 am
IMO B
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