sk8ternite wrote: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. Why is c wrong?

Earlier generations did what???

X is a goal of abc, just as efg did - doesnt make sense at all..

parallel would be: X is a goal of abc, as it was of efg

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.
(C) just as earlier generations did
(E) as it was of earlier generations

* if first half of the comparison is a clause, second half must be a clause and shoud be parallel.
(C) just as earlier generations did -- is not a clause / not parallel to first clause.
(E) as it was of earlier generations -- is a parallel clause

would love to get an explanation why A is wrong.

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.

*LIKE must be followed by a noun, pronoun or noun phrase. NEVER put a clause or a prepositional phrase after LIKE.
--This explains why A is incorrect.

In that case, would A be correct it were "Like earlier generations" instead of "Like that of earlier generations" ?

Someone, please help me with the basics.

dippradhan wrote: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.

*LIKE must be followed by a noun, pronoun or noun phrase. NEVER put a clause or a prepositional phrase after LIKE.
--This explains why A is incorrect.

dippradhan wrote: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.

*LIKE must be followed by a noun, pronoun or noun phrase. NEVER put a clause or a prepositional phrase after LIKE.
--This explains why A is incorrect.

The correct answer E, is a clause after like. "Like that of earlier generations" is a noun phrase, as it's clearly describing and trying to compare the goal of earlier generations. The reason that it's not correct is because of parallelism issues.

pesfunk wrote:In that case, would A be correct it were "Like earlier generations" instead of "Like that of earlier generations" ?

Someone, please help me with the basics.

Nope, the phrase would still need to be parallel, it would still need a verb.

sk8ternite id like to add a small filler --

remember the subject of this sentence is - "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land"...........
i hope this will help you find the correct answer.


cheers

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
Here did refers to some completed action of earlier generations, whereas we are concerned about the goal. Since we are only concerned with the goals and comparison of goals but not with how the goal was achieved or comparisons of actions taken to acheive the goal this option could be eliminated.
(D) as have earlier generations
(E) as it was of earlier generations