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Artificial intelligence emerged during the late 1950's

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by simplyjat » Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:10 am
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
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by simplyjat » Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:52 pm
Experts, your generous opinion please...
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by barron » Wed May 07, 2008 3:06 am
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 :(
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by chidcguy » Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:08 pm
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
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by gmataspirant » Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:57 pm
"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.
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by mdindahouse » Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:48 pm
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'
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by loki.gmat » Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:24 pm
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.

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by sachin_kapoor » Sat Jun 28, 2008 12:09 am
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
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by Carol » Sat Jun 28, 2008 1:47 am
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.
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by loki.gmat » Sat Jun 28, 2008 5:59 am
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!
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by varunrajwade » Sat Jun 28, 2008 2:54 pm
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
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by senthil » Sat Jun 28, 2008 10:15 pm
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
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by turbo jet » Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:17 pm
D is the correct answer bec can is used for general ability whereas could is used for possibility.

A, B and E are eliminated bec ability/capability is not used with things

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by dumb.doofus » Thu Jul 09, 2009 6:36 pm
B and E are as such out because Like is used for nouns and as is used for clauses.

C is out because it should end with "as people do" and not "as people can"

A is out because computers can be programmed or could be programmed, computers by themselves are not able to program..

Only choice left is D.

I dont like this sentence though.. coz we are comparing computers with people.. we are comparing ability to think.. and so I would have preferred a clause starting with "as"...
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by imhimanshu » Fri Jul 10, 2009 3:29 am
C can be out on the simple reason that it seems like sentence is stressing on the programming of Humans as well.

Can someone explain if the option C would have phrase as humans do instead of humans can...will it be true ?

Pls explain
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