The Mayan civilization spread over many states with each having its ow

Hi experts,
I'm having a difficult time grappling with how D is wrong when this sentence is 100% correct:
"Unlike the honeybee, the yellow jacket carries a potent venom that can cause intense pain".
after all option D appears to have the reversed structure of that of this sentence. if the modifier "ruled" is the problem, then would a modifier modifying "honeybee" render the sentence incorrect? for example:
Unlike the honeybee filled with venom, the yellow jacket carries a potent venom that can cause intense pain".

The issue with the later part of the (D) version is subtle, and the truth is that we have to assume that there was only one Aztec civilization to say for sure that that part of (D) is incorrect.

The only problem with later part of the (D) version is that "the Aztecs civilization ruled by one supreme leader" uses the restrictive modifier "ruled by one supreme leader."

It doesn't make sense to restrictively modify "the Aztecs civilization" because there was only one Aztec civilization, whereas the use of the restrictive modifier suggests that there was more than one and that the one mentioned by this sentence is the one of them "ruled by a supreme leader."

If the (D) version were worded in the following way, the later part of the (D) version would still use a modifier but make sense.

The Mayan civilization spread over many states with each having its own sovereign ruler, unlike the Aztecs civilization, which was ruled by one supreme leader.

By the way, the part of the (D) version before the comma is not great either because of the use of the wording "with each having ...."

"With" can be used to convey that two things are literally with each other or that something causes something else, and "with" can be used to add detail to an action, as it is in "John stood there with his hands in his pockets." However, "with" cannot be used to simply continue a description as "with" is used in this case.

In option B, an important information is kept between two commas. Between B and D, I chose D thinking an important information should not be kept between commas and although D had slightly more awkward wording than B, I preferred B. Is this wrong analysis?

Hello Redwhite387,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the central point of this sentence is that the Mayan civilization was spread out, but the Aztec civilization was centralized, as such, the fact that each of the different Mayan states had its own ruler is not information crucial to the central meaning conveyed by the sentence; it can easily be inferred that if the Aztecs had only one supreme ruler, then they had only one state.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hi EducationAisle,

I get that why other options are incorrect, but while reviewing i found option(B) too poorly constructed. Below are my reasonings:

The Mayan civilization spread over many states, each of which had its own sovereign ruler, but the Aztecs civilization was ruled by one supreme leader.

1. Content in yellow is a non-essential modifier. The core of the IC-1 is ''Mayan spread over many states'', hence the IC-2 should logically be talking about ''spreading part.
Rather, IC-2 talks about the contrast content described in the modifier of IC-1. I didn't find sentences to be parallel. Isn't the sentence poorly constructed?

2. ''Spread over'' seems like a modifier describing ''Mayan Civilization'', sentence will be more clear if ''was spread'' is used.

Please review.

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