Long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations, historians are

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that the Olmec culture has been long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations, but historians are now exploring it because of its legacy to succeeding Mesoamerican societies.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Tenses + Pronouns + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• In a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction.
• Information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses "Long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations" to modify "historians", illogically implying that historians have long been overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations; the intended meaning is that the Olmec culture has been long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations; remember, in a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun. Further, Option A incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "had" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past.

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "Olmec culture" with the plural pronoun "them". Further, Option B incorrectly uses "Long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations" to modify "historians’ exploration", illogically implying that the historians' exploration of the Olmec culture have long been overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations; the intended meaning is that the Olmec culture itself has been long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations; remember, in a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.

C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "Olmec culture" with the plural pronoun "them". Further, Option C incorrectly uses "Long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations" to modify "the legacy of the more ancient Olmec culture", incorrectly implying that the legacy of the Olmec culture has long been overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations; the intended meaning is that the Olmec culture itself has been long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations; remember, in a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun. Further, Option C uses the passive construction "the legacy...is what historians are now exploring", rendering it awkward and needlessly indirect.

D: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun "Olmec culture" with the singular pronoun "its". Further, Option D correctly uses "Long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations" to modify "the more ancient Olmec culture", conveying the intended meaning - that the Olmec culture itself has been long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations. Additionally, Option D avoids the tense error seen in Options A and E, as it uses the phrase "its legacy to succeeding Mesoamerican societies" rather than an active verb -- "had", as seen in Options A and E. Besides, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "had" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past. Further, Option E uses the needlessly wordy phrase "is more ancient" and the passive construction "had a legacy to succeeding Mesoamerican societies that historians are now exploring", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



To understand the concept of "Phrase Comma Subject" and "Subject Comma Phrase" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

the more ancient Olmec culture should follow the opening modifier as correctly done in D. E Changes the meaning altogether.

According to option D, the more ancient Olmec culture is now being explored by historians for its legacy to succeeding Mesoamerican societies.
But I have doubt on underlined part. Is it right to use to+Ving form here?

Please clear my doubt.

Long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations, historians are now exploring the more ancient Olmec culture for the legacy it had for succeeding Mesoamerican societies.

(A) historians are now exploring the more ancient Olmec culture for the legacy it had for succeeding Mesoamerican societies - Historians are not overshadowed. Incorrect

(B) historians’ exploration is now of the more ancient Olmec culture's legacy to the Mesoamerican societies succeeding them - Same as A

(C) the legacy of the more ancient Olmec culture to the Mesoamerican societies that succeeded them is what historians are now exploring - Incorrectly modifies the legacy

(D) the more ancient Olmec culture is now being explored by historians for its legacy to succeeding Mesoamerican societies - Correctly modifies Olmec Culture. Use of being is correct as a verb in progressive tense. I guess so.

(E) the Olmec culture is more ancient and had a legacy to succeeding Mesoamerican societies that historians are now exploring[/quote]. Incorrect. Parallelism error.

Answer D.

Thanks,
GyM

A,B - Modifier issue.
C,E - ... societies "that" --> incorrectly referring to societies.

Hence, D is the Answer.

ABHI

We must take that there is no apostrophe for 'its.'
The usage 'for its legacy to' simply means 'for its contribution to.'

Hi dear reader, yes you!

Don't listen to folks above. E is 100 % grammatically correct, but it has meaning issues: "that" seems to modify Mesoamerican societies, but in original text Olmec culture "is now being explored". So D is correct.

(D) the more ancient Olmec culture is now being explored by historians for its legacy to succeeding Mesoamerican societies

(E) the Olmec culture is more ancient and had a legacy to succeeding Mesoamerican societies that historians are now exploring

I completely deny with the answer choice considered correct in the Qs.
the more ancient Olmec culture is now being explored by historians for its legacy to succeeding Mesoamerican societies.
This form is not accepted in gmat.

Actually, 'to' is not an infinitive here. It is used as a proposition to modify the on-coming noun 'societies.'

Why usage of 'had' in answer choice E is wrong?
All I see in choice E is a meaning error.

Have a question about D
Thinking about parallem, if choose D, it will be like
" Long overshadowed by Maya and Aztec civilization, the more ancient Olmec culture........"
does "the more ancient olmec culture" make sense here? Should't it be "the Olmec culture"?
I thought the only choose that make sense when thinking about the parallem is E.

Please help. Thanks

Vivic!
E has woefully lost the original intent. The original says that the historians are exploring the Olmec culture while E says that the historians are exploring the succeeding Mesoamerican societies.

Why can the legacy of the more ancient Olmec culture not be overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec Civilizations? (Why is C wrong?)

1. A legacy is what is left behind after someone or something is gone. Why would a civilization overshadow a legacy? We'd expect a civilization to overshadow another civilization.

Remember that we are supposed to look for the intended meaning here, so don't look at C and ask whether it is possible. Instead, check whether it is likely that that the sentence wants to compare two civilizations to the legacy of a third civilization (culture in this case).

2. Option C results in
Long overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations, the legacy of the more ancient Olmec culture to the Mesoamerican societies that succeeded them is what historians are now exploring.

Given that the Olmec culture is older than the others, I'd expect a singular pronoun instead of the them. That is, we'd want the Mesoamerican societies that succeeded it, not succeeded them.

3. X is what historians are exploring is not as direct as X is being explored by historians.

C. Let's appreciate that it is the more ancient Olmec culture rather than the Maya and Aztec cultures that is being explored by the historians and not the Olmec culture's legacy to the succeeding generations. Here the comparison goes haywire by comparing a legacy of Olmec culture with the Maya and Aztec cultures

E. The historians are not exploring any succeeding Mesoamerican societies either. Per se, C and E substantially alter the original intent.

D: The expression ' the more ancient " is just an adjective that describes the Olmec and should be taken as a single unit. I do not think one should think about a parallelism issue in this.

For example--The 16th president, Lincoln is revered much more than many other presidents. Here because we have described Lincoln as the 16th president, it is not necessary that we describe others as the 20th president or 14th president and so on. Nor should we drop the noun modifier before the subject because we have not used a similar modifier for the other side.

Even E describes Olmec culture as more ancient, while it is not describing Maya and Aztec with any such adjectives. Therefore, parallelism is a non-issue in the given case.

First, (C) is illogical.

Take another look: "the legacy of the more ancient Olmec culture to the Mesoamerican societies that succeeded them." If the Olmec culture is more ancient, this is the culture that was succeeded, so we'd want the singular pronoun "it."

But even if you missed this issue, our goal is to compare options and pick the one that's best. Between (C) and (D), we have a choice between a sentence indicating that the Olmec culture was overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations, and an option indicating that the legacy of the Olmec culture was overshadowed by the Maya and Aztec civilizations. It's more logical to compare legacies with legacies and cultures with cultures (or civilizations,) and so (D) is better than (C).

I hope that helps!

Let me first thank you for your apt explanations for various questions.

Just wanted to know whether following reasoning can also be used to eliminate E in addition to the incorrect usage of had for a legacy that can still continue to exist.
1)'and' is a parallelism marker and ' had a legacy' is not parallel to anything before 'and'
OR
2) Usage of had is incorrect because there is no other past event that would occur after the culture had a legacy. Though I am slightly cpnfused whether an action of 'overshadowing' can classify as as another past event that is recent.

Look forward to your reply!