GMATMBA5 wrote:
D. The Mayan civilization spread over many states with each having its own sovereign ruler, unlike the Aztecs civilization ruled by one supreme leader.
Chethan92 wrote:
generis sir, Can you help why D is wrong?
kukretipiyush and
Chethan92 , sure.
Among other errors, the most solid error in Option D is lack of parallelism.
--
spread is a working verb in simple past tense
--
ruled is a past participle (a verbED)
• Option D is not parallelThe Mayan civilization
spread over many states. . .
[unlike]the Aztecs civilization
ruled [by one supreme leader]
spread is an active past tense verb.
-- What did Mayan civilization
do? It
spread over many states
ruled is a past participle (verbED), not a verb.
-- What did Aztec civilization actively
do? Nothing. Aztec civilization WAS ruled . . . civilization is the object of the verb, not the doer of the action.
(Unlike Mayan civilization, Aztec civilization is not the
subject of that clause)
-- So
ruled by one supreme leader is a participle phrase (a verbED phrase) that modifies
Aztec civilization.
-- Who ruled Aztec civilization? One supreme leader.
The past tense of TO RULE and the past participle of TO RULE are the same.
• How do we know or figure out that RULED is a past participle?-- once we find what we think might be a verb parallel to "spread," in this case, "ruled," we ask,
did the subject do this action?
Did Aztec civilization
itself rule?
No. The supreme leader ruled.
Aztec civilization [OBJECT of verb] was ruled BY one supreme leader [SUBJECT, doer of verb].
Stated differently, one supreme leader [SUBJECT] ruled Aztec civilization [OBJECT of verb].
Takeaway: If the subject
civilization did not do the action
ruled, then
ruled is a past participle (a verbED), not a working verb.
Because
ruled can be EITHER a past tense verb OR a past participle (a verbED),
whatever precedes ruled must be
(1) the subject of the verb
ruled (not true in this question) or
(2) a noun modified by participial (verbED)
ruled. (Past participles modify
the immediately preceding noun.) True in this question.
• Another way: Examine the passive voice in clauses The moment we see a preposition that makes the clause passive (in this case, BY),
we should ask whether the subject (the doer) and the object (the done to) have been reversed.
(The direct object, the "done to," cannot actively VERB anything)
Who ruled in this case? One supreme leader.
• Learn to recognize past participles that are derived from shortened clausesIn this sentence, a clause has been reduced to a phrase (a "reduced relative clause")
-- The original was:
UNLIKE Aztec civilization THAT WAS RULED by one supreme leaderhas been shortened to
-- The reduced version :
UNLIKE Aztec civilization ruled by one supreme leaderWe can reduce (shorten) clauses to phrases, especially when the clauses contain a relative pronoun and a TO BE verb.
Reduced clauses are very common on the GMAT.
To reduce a relative clause to a
past participle phrase:
(1) Remove the relative pronoun (THAT)
(2) Remove the "to be" verb (WAS)
(3) Put the past participle (RULED) after the noun it modifies (CIVILIZATION)
SimilarChimpanzees that are raised by human beings cannot be released into the wild.-- Remove the THAT
-- Remove the ARE (the "to be" verb).
-- Place the verbED after
chimpanzees, which the verbED modifies. Then we have:
Chimpanzees raised by human beings cannot be released into the wild.Aztec civilization itself did not rule. Aztec civilization WAS ruled [by one supreme leader].
Aztec civilization [that was]
ruled by ABC
and
Mayan civilization
spread are not parallel.
• The modifier of "states"? Compare B to DThe technicalities of with-phrases that include "having" are not as clear as the utter lack of parallelism above.
We could, however, compare B to D.
For a moment, ignore whether the modifiers are grammatical.
B: ... states, each of which had its own sovereign ruler,
D: ... states with each having its own sovereign ruler,
Read alone or in context, it is hard to argue that D is better than B in terms of clear meaning and rhetorical effectiveness.
BTW, the
which in
of which refers to the thing that was just mentioned: states.
Phrases such as "each of which" often sound unfamiliar or weird to non-native speakers,
but the phrases are common.
"Each of which had" (Subject/Verb) is a lot more effective than "with each having" (Preposition/Subject/Participle(verbED))
some of which, many of which, each of which, none of whom, all of whom, a few of which . . .
these kinds of phrases are common in English and fairly frequent on the GMAT.
Hope that analysis helps.