Unlike other Mayan cities, Cancun's commercial power

This one is between D and E. But I feel the answer to the following is D.

The usage of the perfect tense (have) has no significance here , and can be eliminated.So I eliminated E.
Moreover, 'seem to be' is idiomatic .

Answer: D.

I feel the usage of 'which' clearly modifies the highlands..

Some one pls..clarify..

Between D and E , I eliminated D because "seemed to be using" + which was didn't seem quite right . here , author is suggesting higlands was a source ? I think if it said which is a source , it would have made more sense?

I agree, E



Can you explain your feeling more about this? I did not get the point!

Sorry for confusion, I meant usage of was didn't seem right .Usage of which is fine since it is directly referring to hilands.

Unlike other Mayan cities, Cancun's commercial power throughout the lowlands seems to be from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, which were a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities.

A. Cancun's commercial power throughout lowlands seems to be from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, which were a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities - comparison issue - city vs power

B. Cancun's commercial power throughout the lowlands seems to have come from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities- comparison issue - city vs power

C. the commercial power of Cancun throughout the lowlands seemed to have come from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities. - comparison issue - city vs power

D. Cancun seemed to be using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, which was a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities, in becoming commercial power throughout the lowlands - usage of which ; 'seemed to be using': unacceptable change of meaning. the past-tense 'seemed' says that that's the way it seemed to the mayans living in cancun long ago, whereas the sentence is clearly designed to say that's the way it seems to us now ; idiom issue - in becoming

E. Cancun seems to have used its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities, to become a commercial power throughout the lowlands - Correct


Answer E

Unlike other Mayan cities, Cancun's commercial power throughout the lowlands seems to be from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, which were a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities.

In the original sentence the Mayan cities are compared to “Cancun’s commercial power” which is an incorrect comparison. Mayan cities can be compared to Cancun. Hence A, B and C go out.
(A) Cancun's commercial power throughout the lowlands seems to be from using its strategic position at the foot of
the highlands, which were a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities

(B) Cancun's commercial power throughout the lowlands seems to have come from using its strategic position at
the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities

(C) the commercial power of Cancun throughout the lowlands seemed to have come from using its strategic
position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities

(D) Cancun seemed to be using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, which was a source of jade,
obsidian, and other valuable commodities, in becoming a commercial power throughout the lowlands.

Idiom: (Using X in becoming Y), this is idiomatically incorrect.
USE has 2 idiomatically correct forms:
1. USES X to Y.(Used in option E).
2. USES X as Y.

Which modifies “foot of highlands” or “highlands” this is ambiguous.

The sentence makes it feel like it was the thing of past, while in the original sentence the author intends to talk about it in the present.

(E) Cancun seems to have used its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and
other valuable commodities, to become a commercial power throughout the lowlands.

Right Idiom: (USED X to become Y)
Right Tense Mood.
Ambiguity about which is resolved here. Where “a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities,” a noun phrase modifies the noun “foot of the highlands”

Still confused For....Is Cancun seems to "have" is correct? Since Cancun is singular.

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Unlike other Mayan cities, Cancun's commercial power throughout the lowlands seems to be from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, which were a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities.

A. Cancun's commercial power throughout lowlands seems to be from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, which were a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities
B. Cancun's commercial power throughout the lowlands seems to have come from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities
C. the commercial power of Cancun throughout the lowlands seemed to have come from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities.
D. Cancun seemed to be using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, which was a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities, in becoming commercial power throughout the lowlands
E. Cancun seems to have used its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities, to become a commercial power throughout the lowlands

Solution:

The original sentence is comparing Cancun’s commercial power to other Mayan cities, which is the wrong comparison
Therefore, rule out A, B & C
Between D & E
D – ‘which’ seems to be modifying ‘highlands’, so which ‘was’ (plural: highlands) is not grammatical
E – to become a commercial power – idiomatic

Is n't it ambiguous in E as it seems :
strategic position at the foot of the highlands
strategic position at a source of jade,
strategic position at obsidian, and
strategic position at other valuable commodities,
or
strategic position at the foot of the highlands
strategic position at a source of jade, a source of obsidian, and a source of other valuable commodities,


But in D by using which, It becomes very clear. that source of XYZ refers to highlands


2.
seems to have (E) vs seemed to be (D)
Here E refers as they already used it
But in D refers to : seemed to be (means not sure it was used )
So is not D better than E?

Please share your opinion on above 2 thoughts. GMATNinja IanStewart GMATGuruNY

Thanks!

This split is not decisive in my view, but you can't parse E that way. By meaning alone ("obsidian" or "other valuable commodities" is not a "strategic position") that interpretation doesn't make sense, before even thinking about the parallelism issues. We have a list: "source of X, Y and Z" that must go together. Answer E is not ambiguous.



The sentence is describing something that appears to be true now, so "seems" is correct.

But the only difference I need to see here is the difference between "in becoming" and "to become". Those -ing constructions are almost always bad writing, and if there's a perfectly good answer choice that replaces one of them, that's going to be the right answer almost always.

The beginning of this sentence opens with a comparison. The comparison is comparing mayan cities with each other, hence anything that illogically compares a mayan city to something that isn't a mayan city is incorrect at the outset:

A. Cancun's commercial power throughout lowlands seems to be from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, which were a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities

B. Cancun's commercial power throughout the lowlands seems to have come from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities

C. the commercial power of Cancun throughout the lowlands seemed to have come from using its strategic position at the foot of the highlands, a source of jade, obsidian, and other valuable commodities.


Between D and E

In D the tenses are a bit confusing and the non-restrictive modifier can be a bit-off, although not entirely wrong.

In D, the message conveyed is that Cancun seemed to be using something that was a source of something in becoming a commercial power.

If something "was" a source of something it by definition no longer "is" a source of that something, so if Cancun is still "becoming" a commercial power then how can they rely on something that no longer exists to become that power?

The message to me wasn't clear.

With E, the message is very clear

I had the same thought too at first, but "was" is not a critical problem in D, because everything in D is in the past. So if, when Cancun was becoming a power, its location was a source of valuable commodities, but no longer is, then the verb tense is correct in D (it's easier to see that "was" is fine in D if you 'fix' D by replacing "in becoming" with "to become"). That's a plausible meaning, so we can't rule out D on that basis alone. Answer D has other problems though.

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