Sentence Correction

sunnyjohn wrote:Can someone put some lights on reasoning to solve these two questions?

1)During an ice age, the buildup of ice at the poles and the drop in water levels near the equator speed up the Earth's rotation, like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in.

(A) like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in
(B) like the increased speed of a figure skater when her arms are drawn in
(C) like a figure skater who increases speed while spinning with her arms drawn in
(D) just as a spinning figure skater who increases speed by drawing in her arms
(E) just as a spinning figure skater increases speed by drawing in her arms
2) More than thirty years ago Dr. Barbara McClintock, the Nobel Prize winner, reported that genes can "jump" as pearls moving mysteriously from one necklace to another.

(A) as pearls moving mysteriously from one necklace to another
(B) like pearls moving mysteriously from one necklace to another
(C) as pearls do that move mysteriously from one necklace to others
(D) like pearls do that move mysteriously from one necklace to others
(E) as do pearls that move mysteriously from one necklace to some other one

sunnyjohn wrote:Can someone put some lights on reasoning to solve these two questions?

1)During an ice age, the buildup of ice at the poles and the drop in water levels near the equator speed up the Earth's rotation, like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in.

(A) like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in
(B) like the increased speed of a figure skater when her arms are drawn in
(C) like a figure skater who increases speed while spinning with her arms drawn in
(D) just as a spinning figure skater who increases speed by drawing in her arms
(E) just as a spinning figure skater increases speed by drawing in her arms

2) More than thirty years ago Dr. Barbara McClintock, the Nobel Prize winner, reported that genes can "jump" as pearls moving mysteriously from one necklace to another.

(A) as pearls moving mysteriously from one necklace to another
(B) like pearls moving mysteriously from one necklace to another
(C) as pearls do that move mysteriously from one necklace to others
(D) like pearls do that move mysteriously from one necklace to others
(E) as do pearls that move mysteriously from one necklace to some other one

Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Probably the biggest difference in #2 is that pearls DO NOT mysteriously move between necklaces. Accordingly, since the metaphor drawn in #2 does not actually happen, you can't use "as do...". You have to use "like" there (and you can't use "do" since they "don't").

In #1, figure skaters do do that, so "as" is appropriate...it does actually happen. And since the earth spins faster when it is heavier at its poles, as does a figure skater when her weight is distributed closer to her body, you can get away with "as" there.

e-GMAT wrote:@saketk is absolutely correct.

John has a cat like Mary. This is incorrect not because of idiomatic usage, but because it communicates ambiguous meaning.

Meaning 1 - John has a cat that is like Mary (Assuming Mary is the name of some other cat)
Meaning 2 - John has a cat & Mary has a cat. i.e
Like Mary, John has a cat. or
John, like Mary, has a cat.

I discussed the issue of "like" vs "as" at the post below.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/as-and-like- ... tml#404190

See if you can apply the framework discussed in this post on the two questions in discussion here. I will look forward to your analysis

e-GMAT wrote:

sunnyjohn wrote: Hi,

I read your analysis. Very interesting and helpful, but I am unable to apply it on second sentence. Below is my analysis.

1)During an ice age, the buildup of ice at the poles and the drop in water levels near the equator speed up the Earth's rotation, like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in.

I can see this is a "COMPARISON".
X speed up Earth, as skater whose speed increases when Y.

Yes this meaning is correct.

(A) like a spinning figure skater whose speed increases when her arms are drawn in
LIKE + CLAUSE

Are you saying that this sentence is wrong because here like is followed by a clause and that is not grammatically permissible? If yes, then your analysis is incorrect. Here like is followed by a noun and this noun is then followed by another clause starting with "whose". So as far as grammatical usage of "like" goes, it is correct. Note that if the construction was - Like Noun Verb, then this would be incorrect.

Now that being said, this sentence is still incorrect because it does not communicate logical meaning. It does not state the comparison as you specified in the meaning analysis. Here note that the sentence illogically compares build up of ice with the ice-staker. Ideally "earth" is comparable to "ice staker" since these are the two entities whose speed increases when something happens.

So this choice is incorrect because of illogical comparison.

Note that just using correct expression (like) is not enough. You should state logical comparison as well.

(B) like the increased speed of a figure skater when her arms are drawn in
WRONG COMPARISON

Yes this is correct.

(C) like a figure skater who increases speed while spinning with her arms drawn in
LIKE + CLAUSE

Same reasoning as choice A.

(D) just as a spinning figure skater who increases speed by drawing in her arms
(E) just as a spinning figure skater increases speed by drawing in her arms

-- D is fine but E is more precise as it removes "who" and keeps the meaning intact.

D is not fine here since D has the construction - just as NOUN. Note here again "who increases.." is a clause that modifies "skater". So skater by itself does not have a verb and hence what follows as is not a clause but a noun. So in this sentence "as" is used in its other role "function".

E is indeed correct. Here increases is the verb for the subject skater.