Far from being mere replicas of seventeenth-century African culture, Maroon societies have continually developed as their members have________________the artistic heritage bequeathed by their ancestors, adapting it creatively to their changing lives.
Answer: D
We can surmise from the sentence that Maroon societies are African groups. The sentence says that their culture has not remained static at the seventeenth- century level, but has been adapted creatively to their changing lives.
The missing verb must therefore be a synonym of this italicized phrase. Among the choices, it is modified which has a similar meaning and is the answer.