Artificial intelligence emerged during the late 1950's

simplyjat

Artificial intelligence emerged during the late 1950's as an academic discipline based on the assumption that computers are able to be programmed to think like people.

(A) are able to be programmed to think like people
(B) were able to be programmed to think as people
(C) can be programmed to think as people can
(D) could be programmed to think like people
(E) are capable of being programmed to think like people do

OA D

simplyjat · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 1:52 pm Post subject:

Experts, your generous opinion please...

barron · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 4:06 am Post subject:

A,B and E can be discounted because are/were is wrong here

it has to be can/could

I choose C because it tells that computers can do as people can do
D seems to be right but i feel by using 'like' we are comparing two nouns when the comparison should be between two clauses

can someone enlighten me Sad

chidcguy · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:08 pm Post subject:

This is a good question. I picked C because we are comparing the way humans think and how puters can be programmed to do the same.

Ian/Stuart??

Can you please weigh in? Why "like" trumps "as" in this question?

Thanks

gmataspirant · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:57 pm Post subject:

"Like" is used only to compare nouns.
"As" is used to compare clauses.

So "C" and "B" is wrong.

"A" - "are able to be programmed" sounds wrong to me. I can't explain the reasoning behind it.

"E" being is almost always wrong in GMAT. so just exclude it.

mdindahouse · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:48 pm Post subject:

I concurr with gmataspirant.

I myself am struggling with which grammatical rule would explain the incorrect use of 'are' here but the sentence when using 'are' sort of infers that computers can program themselves.

answer is 'D'

loki.gmat · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:24 pm Post subject:

according to manhuttan sc, a clause is any "phrase" that includes a verb.
in C - last part of the sentence - "people can think"(think is a redundant verb here) is a cluase.

hence IMO C.

Thanks!

sachin_kapoor · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 1:09 am Post subject:

A, B and E are out and easy to eliminate.

C -- would be better if a "do" is introduced after can. "AS" is followed by a noun without a verb which is less acceptable.

D -- better option. Also as it is a assumption, "could" is a better choice ---subjunctive clause

IMO D

Carol · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 2:47 am Post subject:

loki.gmat your approach isn't ilogical

But what's stated regards smth happened in the past, so we should pick one of the options parallel to that sort of action - I would pick B or D. (We couldn't pick option C, because "can" is the present tense)

If we have doubts whether to choose B or D, we must know when to use "like" and "as", thus D is the right answer.

loki.gmat · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 6:59 am Post subject:

the only problem with D - it gives an impression that people could also be programmed to think which is not the intended meaning of the sentence.

Stuart - please provide ur comments.

Thanks!

varunrajwade · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 3:54 pm Post subject:

I think the answer is D...

The reason is when u are making an assumption, you are speculating.. Can is used for certainty (I can do that) v/s a slightly uncertain could (I could do that).... Hence IMHO D is correct

senthil · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:15 pm Post subject:

I accept with can /could discrepancies but apart from that how is it we are going with a choice which has "like'....?????????

incase we had could in option D ?

can somebody plesae clearly explain why do we prefer 'like' whereas 'as' shud be prefered