they refers to organizations.

Thanks.

I have one more question.

The correct answer is as stated below.

My question is why is "like" acceptable here?

Isn't the second last phrase, "platinum remains consistently expensive", a clause?

I feel that the answer should be as below, in qoutations.

Please give me your comments.

"Because of decreased availability and increased demand in scientific research, platinum remains expensive, as gold does"


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Qn: Because of less availability and greater demand for scientific research, platinum remains consistently expensive, like gold.

Ans: Because of decreased availability and increased demand in scientific research, platinum remains expensive, like gold.

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try rephrasing:

platinum, like gold remains consistently expensive.
or
gold, like platinum remains consistently expensive.
or
platinum remains consistently expensive, like gold.

in all three sentences its platinum which is being compared with gold.

We use 'like' when comparing two nouns (nouns being: platinum and gold in this case)

Please have a look at following two sentences
you will get the idea....


platinum remains consistently expensive, like gold.

platinum is expensive, as gold is.