Sentence Correction

OG SC 73.

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


Answer is E I have no idea why it is so.

Calista.

Calista,
I will go for E. Obviously, u will cut down the options - B, C and D. Confusion comes between A and E. Right? Here I would like to mention one thing -
According to OG, LIKE is used for comparison where SUCH AS is used for providing example. Again another point is LIKE can be used two between two nouns or pronouns where AS is used to compare between two clauses.
Here THAT can mean both the "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land" and "a major goal". The reference of THAT is not very much clear. But in E, IT refers to the nearest noun i.e. "a major goal".
Does my explanation give you a clear idea to you?

camitava wrote:Calista,
I will go for E. Obviously, u will cut down the options - B, C and D. Confusion comes between A and E. Right? Here I would like to mention one thing -
According to OG, LIKE is used for comparison where SUCH AS is used for providing example. Again another point is LIKE can be used two between two nouns or pronouns where AS is used to compare between two clauses.
Here THAT can mean both the "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land" and "a major goal". The reference of THAT is not very much clear. But in E, IT refers to the nearest noun i.e. "a major goal".
Does my explanation give you a clear idea to you?

1) "LIKE is used for comparison where SUCH AS is used for providing example." -- so according to this I can say "..according to recent polls, x is still a goal of a majority of young adults such as earlier generation" which doesn't make sense. Is it what you are saying? If so can I use this technique whenever I have LIKE?

2) "LIKE can be used two between two nouns or pronouns " -- Aren't we comparing "goals" here? If so they are nouns then why can't we use LIKE?

3) "THAT can mean both the "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land" - Why? THAT can refer to singular as well as plural right? How did you know that that refers both?

Thanks for your time,
Calista.

camitava gave you an excellent explanation.

1) "..according to recent polls, x is still a goal of a majority of young adults such as earlier generation" - no you cannot say this because 'earlier generation' is not an example of young adults.



2) "LIKE can be used two between two nouns or pronouns " -- Aren't we comparing "goals" here? If so they are nouns then why can't we use LIKE? - no, you are comparing the action of 'owning and living' which is clearly not a noun. In 99% of the cases, you use 'like' to introduce a comparison between nouns or pronouns.

3) "THAT can mean both the "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land" - Why? THAT can refer to singular as well as plural right? How did you know that that refers both? - 'that' in this case logically refers only to 'the goal'

StarDust845 wrote:

camitava wrote:Calista,
I will go for E. Obviously, u will cut down the options - B, C and D. Confusion comes between A and E. Right? Here I would like to mention one thing -
According to OG, LIKE is used for comparison where SUCH AS is used for providing example. Again another point is LIKE can be used two between two nouns or pronouns where AS is used to compare between two clauses.
Here THAT can mean both the "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land" and "a major goal". The reference of THAT is not very much clear. But in E, IT refers to the nearest noun i.e. "a major goal".
Does my explanation give you a clear idea to you?

1) "LIKE is used for comparison where SUCH AS is used for providing example." -- so according to this I can say "..according to recent polls, x is still a goal of a majority of young adults such as earlier generation" which doesn't make sense. Is it what you are saying? If so can I use this technique whenever I have LIKE?

2) "LIKE can be used two between two nouns or pronouns " -- Aren't we comparing "goals" here? If so they are nouns then why can't we use LIKE?

3) "THAT can mean both the "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land" - Why? THAT can refer to singular as well as plural right? How did you know that that refers both?

Thanks for your time,
Calista.

can we have someone who gives reasons for A and E again

are we saying

A . Goal of a majority of young adults, like that of earlier generations - since like is used to refer to nouns, we are saying that Goal of a majority of young adults, like goal of earlier generations

and goal is not noun here

E

Goal of a majority of young adults as it was of earlier generations - as is used for comaring actions. WE are comapring goals so its action

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.


Here, we are comparing the actions. Owning and freestanding are the subjects, "is" is the verb. I believe, goal is confused as the subject.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks,
Viju[/b]

**Important: We say that A does something like B does when A's and B's actions have similar characteristics, but their respective actions aren't the same. A does as B does, if A and B do the exact same thing. We expect the sentence to state that the previous generations also had the same goals as the current young adult generation. With this in mind...

We're left with B, C, D, E.

B - incorrect... that of is correct, not that for. (Completely unidiomatic).
C - Earlier generations did what? It isn't evident as to what 'that' is referring to.
D - as have earlier generations what? Similar problem to C.
E - Makes since. It refers to 'goals,' and this clearly states that the goals were of the earlier generations as well.

Hope this helped!

D