BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

Like Vs As

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Locked
Previous Topic Next Topic
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1325
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 am
Thanked: 105 times
Followed by:14 members

Like Vs As

by vikram4689 » Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:06 am
According to a recent poll, owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults, like that of earlier generations.
(A) like that of earlier generations
(B) as that for earlier generations
(C) just as earlier generations did
(D) as have earlier generations
(E) as it was of earlier generations

[spoiler]OA:E,
"Like" is used for comparing Nouns and "As" is for Clauses
In A "that of earlier generations" is a Noun so why it is wrong[/spoiler]
Premise: If you like my post
Conclusion : Press the Thanks Button ;)
Top
Source: — Sentence Correction |
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1325
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 am
Thanked: 105 times
Followed by:14 members

by vikram4689 » Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:13 am
This is corrected sentence of Q51 in QG10 and uses similar construction:
While Jackie Robinson was a Brooklyn Dodger, his courage in the face of physical threats and verbal attacks was not unlike that of Rosa Parks, who refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery,
Alabama.
Premise: If you like my post
Conclusion : Press the Thanks Button ;)
Top
Legendary Member
Posts: 1448
Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 9:55 am
Location: India
Thanked: 375 times
Followed by:53 members

by Frankenstein » Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:20 am
Hi,
Q1) We need to use the clause 'it was of earlier generations' to main parallelism with ' is still a goal of a majority of young adults'.
Like cannot introduce clauses. Only 'as' can introduce clauses. So, E is correct

Q2)In this question we are comparing two noun phrases. So, like is correct.
Cheers!

Things are not what they appear to be... nor are they otherwise
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1325
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 am
Thanked: 105 times
Followed by:14 members

by vikram4689 » Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:42 am
Hi Frakenstein,
How to decide if comparision starts from "is still a goal of a majority of young adults" OR "a goal of a majority of young adults" . Also if we are comparing clauses how both the clauses in correct ans are parallel.

is still a goal of a majority of young adults - FORM : Verb .... Noun
it was of earlier generations - FORM : Noun ... Verb
Premise: If you like my post
Conclusion : Press the Thanks Button ;)
Top
Legendary Member
Posts: 1448
Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 9:55 am
Location: India
Thanked: 375 times
Followed by:53 members

by Frankenstein » Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:21 am
vikram4689 wrote:Hi Frakenstein,
How to decide if comparision starts from "is still a goal of a majority of young adults" OR "a goal of a majority of young adults" . Also if we are comparing clauses how both the clauses in correct ans are parallel.

is still a goal of a majority of young adults - FORM : Verb .... Noun
it was of earlier generations - FORM : Noun ... Verb
Hi,
"owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults" is parallel to " it(owning and... land) was (a goal)of earlier generations".
The missing 'a goal' is understood.

By using 'like that(the goal) of earlier generations means this goal is similar to another goal.
The idea here is to compare a single goal shared by this generation and earlier generation.
So, we use a parallel construction to first subordinate clause by using as in the second clause.

This one was recently posted by Mr.GMATguruNY.
Cheers!

Things are not what they appear to be... nor are they otherwise
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1325
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 am
Thanked: 105 times
Followed by:14 members

by vikram4689 » Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:42 am
"owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults" is parallel to " it(owning and... land) was (a goal)of earlier generations".
The missing 'a goal' is understood.
Seems fine but one doubt how do i recognize whether comparision is from beginning of clause or from a noun present in the clause. IN this case,as you mentioned above, comparision starts from beginning of clause(owning...) but the sentence written below comparision is between Nouns -courage.

Sentence :While Jackie Robinson was a Brooklyn Dodger, his courage in the face of physical threats and verbal attacks was not unlike that of Rosa Parks, who refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery,Alabama.
By using 'like that(the goal) of earlier generations means this goal is similar to another goal.
The idea here is to compare a single goal shared by this generation and earlier generation.
So, we use a parallel construction to first subordinate clause by using as in the second clause.
Little issue here,how does similar come into picture. does above statement means like cannot be used from comparision

P.S. Trying to solidify this concept of "as vs like" as this is often tested in GMAT
Premise: If you like my post
Conclusion : Press the Thanks Button ;)
Top
Legendary Member
Posts: 1448
Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 9:55 am
Location: India
Thanked: 375 times
Followed by:53 members

by Frankenstein » Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:15 am
vikram4689 wrote: IN this case,as you mentioned above, comparision starts from beginning of clause(owning...) but the sentence written below comparision is between Nouns -courage.

Sentence :While Jackie Robinson was a Brooklyn Dodger, his courage in the face of physical threats and verbal attacks was not unlike that of Rosa Parks, who refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery,Alabama.

Little issue here,how does similar come into picture. does above statement means like cannot be used from comparision

P.S. Trying to solidify this concept of "as vs like" as this is often tested in GMAT
Hi,
Firstly, 'like' is used for comparison to say that one is similar to other.

'.. his courage in the face of physical threats and verbal attacks was not unlike that(courage...) of Rosa Parks.'
We are comparing the courage of person1 with courage of person2. As, you are aware that noun phrases can be compared using 'like', we use 'like' here.
But, in the previous example, 'owing....land' is the common(same) goal for many generations(as generations go by, the goal remained the same). See here in this case, problem is with 'that' as it refers to another goal and this makes us feel that there are two goals(just like courage of two people).

P.S. I am trying to respond this so that I can better this concept too.
Cheers!

Things are not what they appear to be... nor are they otherwise
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1325
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 am
Thanked: 105 times
Followed by:14 members

by vikram4689 » Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:39 am
So what you are saying is:

Like is used to compare Nouns which are 2 different entities and their similarities are being compared.

As is used to compare Clauses in which same idea is being compared.

Please modify in case in interpreted wrongly.
Premise: If you like my post
Conclusion : Press the Thanks Button ;)
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1325
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 am
Thanked: 105 times
Followed by:14 members

by vikram4689 » Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:39 am
clicked 2 times, i do not know how to delete post and when i deleted content in edit mode it asked me to enter something...so here it is ;)
Premise: If you like my post
Conclusion : Press the Thanks Button ;)
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1325
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 am
Thanked: 105 times
Followed by:14 members

by vikram4689 » Fri Jun 10, 2011 12:56 am
Hi Ron,

Reading MGMAT SC, i know that LIKE is used for comparing NOUN and AS is for CLAUSES. In the sentence below i am comfortable with correct option E, as it uses "as" for comparing clauses. My doubt is that what is wrong with A, structure of sentence is <clause>..like..<Noun>, But this will be the structure when a NOUN (goal here) from <clause> is being compared with <Noun>.

Please explain where i went wrong.

Thanks
Premise: If you like my post
Conclusion : Press the Thanks Button ;)
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3380
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 am
Thanked: 2256 times
Followed by:1535 members
GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Thu Jun 16, 2011 2:24 am
vikram4689 wrote:Hi Ron,

Reading MGMAT SC, i know that LIKE is used for comparing NOUN and AS is for CLAUSES. In the sentence below i am comfortable with correct option E, as it uses "as" for comparing clauses. My doubt is that what is wrong with A, structure of sentence is <clause>..like..<Noun>, But this will be the structure when a NOUN (goal here) from <clause> is being compared with <Noun>.

Please explain where i went wrong.

Thanks
the grammar isn't the issue; "like" compares nouns, but the noun that doesn't follow "like" (i.e., the noun that's in the main part of the sentence) clearly must be in a clause. (otherwise there would be no clause in the sentence!)

the problem is that "like X" sets up a comparison with the SUBJECT of the other clause.
in these templates:
X is Y, like Z.
Like Z, X is Y.´
in *both* of these sentences, the comparison is "X is like Z".

this is the big problem with (a) -- "that of earlier generations" corresponds logically to "a goal of ... young adults", but the like construction puts it in a comparison with "owning and living..."
this is not logical.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

--

Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete chiedere domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi

--

Quand on se sent bien dans un vêtement, tout peut arriver. Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.

Yves Saint-Laurent

--

Learn more about ron
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1325
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 am
Thanked: 105 times
Followed by:14 members

by vikram4689 » Thu Jun 16, 2011 4:33 am
Thanks Ron, i will add that to error log :)
Premise: If you like my post
Conclusion : Press the Thanks Button ;)
Top
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 193
Joined: Tue May 24, 2011 5:14 am
Thanked: 6 times
Followed by:1 members

by iongmat » Thu Jun 16, 2011 8:58 am
lunarpower wrote:...but the like construction puts it in a comparison with "owning and living..."
Ron Sir, could you please explain this. Basically, with A, the sentence is:

...owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults, like goal of earlier generations.

So, why is this not correct?
Top
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 163
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:56 am
Location: Philadelphia
Thanked: 13 times
Followed by:4 members
GMAT Score:660

by chendawg » Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:10 pm
iongmat wrote:
lunarpower wrote:...but the like construction puts it in a comparison with "owning and living..."
Ron Sir, could you please explain this. Basically, with A, the sentence is:

...owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults, like goal of earlier generations.

So, why is this not correct?
lunarpower wrote:
the problem is that "like X" sets up a comparison with the SUBJECT of the other clause.
in these templates:
X is Y, like Z.
Like Z, X is Y.´
in *both* of these sentences, the comparison is "X is like Z".
If I'm not mistaken, Ron is saying that with this construction (X is Y, like Z), the comparison MUST be referring to the subject of the preceding clause.

So in the sentence,

According to a recent poll, owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults, like that of earlier generations.

The "xxxxxxxx of earlier generations" MUST be compared to the subject, "owning and living in a freestanding house", of the sentence, because of the construction(X is Y, like Z) of the sentence. Since the "owning and living in a freestanding house" is a clause, then we must use a clause as a comparison, not a noun.
I'm not bipolar...I'm bi-winning!!
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1325
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 am
Thanked: 105 times
Followed by:14 members

by vikram4689 » Thu Jun 16, 2011 8:56 pm
Hi Chendawg,
You mentioned it correctly except for following line.
Since the "owning and living in a freestanding house" is a clause, then we must use a clause as a comparison, not a noun
"owning and living in a freestanding house" is a noun phrase and not a clause. We cannot use "like" because of wrong comparison b/w "owning.." & "goal". Now why we are using "as", the reason is with E option sentence becomes:
According to a recent poll, owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults, as it was of earlier generations.

Now it is replaced with subject of previous clause "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land "

So sentence becomes: According to a recent poll, owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults, as owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land was the goal of earlier generation.
Premise: If you like my post
Conclusion : Press the Thanks Button ;)
Top
Post new topic Locked