fruit respire

[earth@work]

81. Although fruit can no longer grow once it is picked, it continues for some time to respire, taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide, similar to the way human beings breathe.

(A) similar to the way human beings breathe
(B) similarly to human beings who are breathing
(C) just like the breathing of human beings
(D) as human beings when breathing
(E) just as human beings do when they breathe

Ans:E what is wrong with A

[lav]

I will choose A .. is it correct answer ?

can eliminate (B) "similarly to" sounds wrong

the choice (D) sounds strange .. cant say "as human beings when not breathing"

choice (E) is too verbose

left with (C) and (A)
(C) just like the breathing of human beings
In above choice "the breathing" sounds incorrect. Hence (A)

(A) similar to the way human beings breathe


what is the correct answer ?

[lav]

sorry , you have posted the correct ans too , I didn't notice

[arjunn7]

Even i was left with A & E.. but i really cannot say how A is wrong..

Some explanation will be appreciated..

[earth@work]

bump!

some explanation pls why A is wrong!

[earth@work]

arjun & lav: i found explanation in test magic forum by bob :

"Like" and "similar to" mean much the same thing. "Just" before "like" means "exactly". So the difference between "just like" and "similar to" is a matter of degree.

You are similar to your father. You and he have some similarities.
You are just like your father. You and he are exactly the same.

But for this SC item I would not choose "similar to" or "just like". The best response here is E. The sentence is pointing out that fruit respires by taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide and that humans breathe in the same way, so the conjunction "as" is appropriate.

[shanrizvi]

But they essentially mean the same thing right? "Just as human beings do when they breathe" and "similar to the way human beings breathe". I chose the latter because it doesn't have any identifiable error and is much shorter.

Does anyone have an explanation as to why E is the correct answer?

[estode]

It was a close one for me too, but I ended up settling on E.

I am not too sure if the logic here is correct or not, but I picked E based on parallel verb placement.

"...it (subject) continues (verb) for some time to respire,... just as human beings (subject) do (verb) when they breathe."

I imagined cutting out the oxygen and carbon dioxide part, since the element is not required for the sentence to work.