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marrying and raising a family

by prepgmat09 » Tue Aug 03, 2010 3:27 pm
Research shows that marrying and raising a family remains a key objective of most young Americans, like that of other cultures.

A. like that of other cultures
B. as that for other cultures
C. just as other cultures did
D. as have other cultures
E. as it is of other cultures

OA after discussion. Please support with explanation, especially about A and E .
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by debmalya_dutta » Tue Aug 03, 2010 4:20 pm
My pick is E
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by indiantiger » Tue Aug 03, 2010 6:34 pm
what is being compared here? " the key objective "

-like cannot be used as we use like when we are comparing noun or noun phrases so A is out.
-E is the right choice as it uses "as" correctly and "it" is used to refer back to "objective".

I hope this helps.
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by selango » Tue Aug 03, 2010 6:50 pm
IMO E.

Whenever actions is compared,"as" must be used.
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by FightWithGMAT » Tue Aug 03, 2010 10:56 pm
prepgmat09 wrote:Research shows that marrying and raising a family remains a key objective of most young Americans, like that of other cultures.

A. like that of other cultures
B. as that for other cultures
C. just as other cultures did
D. as have other cultures
E. as it is of other cultures

OA after discussion. Please support with explanation, especially about A and E .
There is nothing wrong with A except for the pronoun ambiguity.
THAT in A is ambiguous.

If the sentence had been "like the objective of other cultures", then both A and E would have been given equal preference.
GMAT very subtly puts words that are helpful in eliminating wrong choices.
Last edited by FightWithGMAT on Tue Aug 03, 2010 10:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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by gmat_perfect » Tue Aug 03, 2010 10:56 pm
prepgmat09 wrote:Research shows that marrying and raising a family remains a key objective of most young Americans, like that of other cultures.

A. like that of other cultures
B. as that for other cultures
C. just as other cultures did
D. as have other cultures
E. as it is of other cultures

OA after discussion. Please support with explanation, especially about A and E .
=> This sentence has compared two clauses:

X and Y remains a key objective, + Clause.

In the second part we need a clause.

=> A, B, and D are out because these options do not have clause.

We are between C and E.

In C, "did" is not parallel with "remains". So, it is out.

Answer is E.
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by prepgmat09 » Tue Aug 03, 2010 11:45 pm
Guys, thanks for your replies.

My doubt is that here we can make a comparison in 2 ways:

1. compare a clause with another clause using "as + verb"
Clause 1: raising a family remains a key objective of most young Americans
Clause 2: it is (a key objective) of other cultures

2. compare a noun/noun phrase with another noun/noun phrase using "like"
Noun Phrase 1: key objective of most young Americans
Noun Phrase 2: that of other cultures (here, "that" refers to "key objectives")

So, what is wrong in comparison 2?
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by prepgmat09 » Fri Aug 06, 2010 4:01 am
prepgmat09 wrote:Guys, thanks for your replies.

My doubt is that here we can make a comparison in 2 ways:

1. compare a clause with another clause using "as + verb"
Clause 1: raising a family remains a key objective of most young Americans
Clause 2: it is (a key objective) of other cultures

2. compare a noun/noun phrase with another noun/noun phrase using "like"
Noun Phrase 1: key objective of most young Americans
Noun Phrase 2: that of other cultures (here, "that" refers to "key objectives")

So, what is wrong in comparison 2?
Could anyone please help me with this question?
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by this_time_i_will » Fri Aug 06, 2010 4:56 am
this question is copy of OG-12, Q.82.
I guess the source is Grockit
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by e-GMAT » Fri Aug 06, 2010 10:54 am
Prepgmat09, I will take a stab at explaining your doubt about comparison 2 in your post.

Sentence in Question:
Research shows that marrying and raising a family remains a key objective of most young Americans, like that of other cultures.

Comparison 2 per your post:
Noun Phrase 1: key objective of most young Americans
Noun Phrase 2: that of other cultures (here, "that" refers to "key objectives")

Translating this comparison and simplifying the sentence we can form the following sentence:
XYZ is a key objective of Americans, like that of other cultures.
OR
XYZ is a key objective of Americans, like objectives of other cultures.

Since the comparison word "like" is used here, we need to make sure that the comparison is logically and grammatically parallel.

Here XYZ (a specific objective) is being compared to objectives (general). Thus, this comparison is not parallel.

If you are not able to deduce this comparison from this sentence structure, then for ease of understanding, we will simply shuffle the phrase and clause in this sentence. Note that by doing the following shuffling, the sentence essentially remains the same.

Like objectives of other cultures, XYZ is an objective of Americans.

Now the entities being compared may be more clear:
Objectives (general) LIKE XYZ (a specific objective)

I hope this explains why the comparison#2 stated in your post is not correct comparison.

One more thing about the use of 'like' and 'as':
'Like' is used to establish "similarity in behavior" whereas 'as' is used to establish the 'actual function'.

For example, both these sentences are correct, but they communicate different meaning:
Joe acts as Susan's mentor = This implies that Joe is Susan's mentor.
Joe acts like Susan's mentor = This implies that Joe is not Susan's mentor but he behaves like one.

For e-GMAT users, these concepts are explained in detailed in the concept file:
Idioms - Functions - I.
Furthermore, the strategy of simplifying the sentence to understand the meaning is applied in all application files.
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by prepgmat09 » Fri Aug 06, 2010 12:25 pm
e-GMAT wrote:
Translating this comparison and simplifying the sentence we can form the following sentence:
XYZ is a key objective of Americans, like that of other cultures.
OR
XYZ is a key objective of Americans, like objectives of other cultures.
Hello e-GMAT,

Thanks for your explanation.

I have a follow-up question. I could also translate the comparison into the following sentence:
XYZ is a key objective of Americans, like "the objective" of other cultures.

In this case, we would not talk about some general "objectives" but rather a specific "objective". In fact, I think this interpretation would also support the fact that we are using "that" and not "those" as a pronoun.

Could you please help me further understand this concept, if I making a mistake here?

Best,
prepgmat09
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by e-GMAT » Sun Aug 08, 2010 11:09 pm
As I mentioned in my previous post, "like" is used to express similarity and not equality.

The intended meaning in the question in discussion is that young Americans and other cultures have the same key objective - marrying and raising a family.

Thus, in addition to the fact that the Choice A is wordy, it is incorrect since it does not communicate the intended meaning. With the usage of "like", it is not apparent whether the objectives of young Americans and other cultures are exactly the same or simply similar.

I understand that "as" vs. "like" is a sophisticated concept, and that is why we have a major portion of a concept file devoted to the same. e-GMAT users can check as vs like in the file "Idioms - Functions - I "

To reiterate, whenever you have to choose between "as" and "like", you can use a simple logic:
Use "as" when you want to show exact same behavior
Use "like" when you want to show similarity in behavior. Just use caution to not follow like by a clause.
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