IMO Answer: E

"As rare as" is unidiomatic hence A and B out
use of "like" here is inappropriate because we are not comparing anything at best giving examples hence C and D out

also in E use of Whether is appropriate ...

Vinayak

ABC were clearly OUT

Idiom issue
the rarer....the more...
https://www.beatthegmat.com/sc-t13407.html

ketan8 wrote:As rare as something becomes, be it a baseball card or a musical recording or a postage stamp, the more avidly it is sought by collectors.

(A) As rare as something becomes, be it
(B) As rare as something becomes, whether it is
(C) As something becomes rarer and rarer, like
(D) The rarer something becomes, like
(E) The rarer something becomes, whether it is

I dont have the OA for this. Plz provide me answers with explainations.

Thanks!!

I also vote for "E".

A,B out as
As rare as is used to show similarity between two things....

something like

Talent today is as rare as it was in the past.

C, D can be kicked out as
like is wrong since like is used to show similarity between two nouns....which are not the case here.

OA is E

IMO - E
A,B and C are clearly out.

(D) The rarer something becomes, like
(E) The rarer something becomes, whether it is

In D, like is incorrect. Like is used to compare.

rahulg83 wrote:OA is E

Question posted by Ketan and OA by Rahul....

Rahul are you proxing Ketan ?

Guys,

Just had a question on this

As you all correctly said, 'like' is used to compare 2 nouns, isn't 'whether' used when you have only 2 options e.g., "I did not know whether he'll go."

In that case isn't the usage "The rarer something becomes, whether it is a baseball card or a musical recording or a postage stamp..." incorrect?

Please help.

Didnt know which is a greater sin to commit here so went with option D.

jitsy wrote:Guys,

Just had a question on this

As you all correctly said, 'like' is used to compare 2 nouns, isn't 'whether' used when you have only 2 options e.g., "I did not know whether he'll go."

In that case isn't the usage "The rarer something becomes, whether it is a baseball card or a musical recording or a postage stamp..." incorrect?

Please help.

Didnt know which is a greater sin to commit here so went with option D.

The conjunction "whether" is not limited to two things. The archaic pronoun meaning "which of two" is limited to two things, but you won't see it on the GMAT.

Thanks Jim!! Appreciate your response.