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Building on civilizations - Diction; Parallelism

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by NEGU » Thu May 13, 2010 8:44 am
Q. 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: [spoiler](B)[/spoiler]

This question is from OG12, where its cites that the features cultivating, harvesting, and exploiting to be parallel. Then how are the features in selection B parallel (cultivation, harvesting, exploitation)?
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by pradeepkaushal9518 » Thu May 13, 2010 9:53 am
yes its B as to maintain paralellism between on cultivation such as...........and exploitation of

other options having A. cultivating- wrong C. cultivation .....exploiting wrong D and E have same problems
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by pharmxanthan » Thu May 13, 2010 10:40 am
Because "the cultivation", "the harvesting" and "the exploitation" are all nouns here.
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by jeffedwards » Thu May 13, 2010 11:05 am
Yes, I agree; B is the answer.

If you picked A, you probably didn't notice how "the harvesting" was hidden in there as a noun, because it appears to mimic "cultivating" and "exploiting".

B follows the same parallelism throughout...the cultivation, the harvesting, the exploitation
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by hariharakarthi » Thu May 13, 2010 12:31 pm
Core sentence :
Modifier, The Mochica developed their own elaborate society, modifier

Here, the second modifier comes in the underlined section.

Second modifier is participial modifier - based on X, Y and Z

The Mochica developed their own elaborate society, based on X, Y and Z.

X, Y and Z should be in parallel.

X- the cultivation of such crops as corn and beans - Cultivation is an action noun
Y - the harvesting of fish and seafood - complex Gerund noun
Z - the exploitation of other wild and domestic resources - exploitation is an action noun
Note: Complex Gerund Noun and Action Noun can be parallel.

Question:
Have a look at choice B,
the cultivation of such crops as corn and beans. Is it a idiomatic phrase? Any help is appreciated.
Regards,
hhk
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by paes » Fri May 14, 2010 2:52 am
hariharakarthi wrote:Core sentence :
Modifier, The Mochica developed their own elaborate society, modifier

Here, the second modifier comes in the underlined section.

Second modifier is participial modifier - based on X, Y and Z

The Mochica developed their own elaborate society, based on X, Y and Z.

X, Y and Z should be in parallel.

X- the cultivation of such crops as corn and beans - Cultivation is an action noun
Y - the harvesting of fish and seafood - complex Gerund noun
Z - the exploitation of other wild and domestic resources - exploitation is an action noun
Note: Complex Gerund Noun and Action Noun can be parallel.

Question:
Have a look at choice B,
the cultivation of such crops as corn and beans. Is it a idiomatic phrase? Any help is appreciated.
I need one clarification here, please do:
If I remove 'the' from Y, then will it be parallel to X and Y
Y : harvesting of fish and seafood

Now harvesting is a gerund(noun) or a verb ??
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by mohit11 » Fri May 14, 2010 4:24 am
NEGU wrote:Q. 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: [spoiler](B)[/spoiler]

This question is from OG12, where its cites that the features cultivating, harvesting, and exploiting to be parallel. Then how are the features in selection B parallel (cultivation, harvesting, exploitation)?

Like/such as split . We use Such as to give examples. This rules out A,C and E

D contains pronoun reference problems. Answer B .. Short and Simple
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by hariharakarthi » Fri May 14, 2010 5:55 am
@paes
Here is my take,

Y : harvesting of fish and seafood

Then it is a gerund phrase. "harvesting" is a gerund here.

harvesting of fish and seafood - Participial gerund phrase, which should be used as a modifier.

Then, in this case Y can not be made parallel to X and Z, hence the harvesting of fish and seafood is required here.

Hope this helps.
Regards,
hhk
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by NEGU » Sat May 15, 2010 2:37 am
hariharakarthi wrote:Core sentence :
Modifier, The Mochica developed their own elaborate society, modifier

Here, the second modifier comes in the underlined section.

Second modifier is participial modifier - based on X, Y and Z

The Mochica developed their own elaborate society, based on X, Y and Z.

X, Y and Z should be in parallel.

X- the cultivation of such crops as corn and beans - Cultivation is an action noun
Y - the harvesting of fish and seafood - complex Gerund noun
Z - the exploitation of other wild and domestic resources - exploitation is an action noun
Note: Complex Gerund Noun and Action Noun can be parallel.

Question:
Have a look at choice B,
the cultivation of such crops as corn and beans. Is it a idiomatic phrase? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks everyone.

@hariharakarthi > On your question of how idiomatic answer B is, note that the word LIKE is used for comparing, where as SUCH AS is used to introduce examples as in the above question.

Eg.
Incorrect: Can you buy me some fruit LIKE apples or oranges.
Correct: Can you buy me some fruit SUCH AS apples and oranges.
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by hariharakarthi » Sat May 15, 2010 11:58 am
@NEGU

I think crops such as corn and beans - is correct way to represent rather than such crops as corn and beans.
I also thought about this particular issue while solving this problem. But, I went ahead chosen this option because other options are not grammatically correct.

But, I am not sure whether the phrase such crops as corn and beans correct.

What is the source of this question?
Regards,
hhk
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