How do I tell the entity that is being compared

[steven7dong]

Hello,

I did two questions recently and I got one of them wrong. However, when reading the answers, I got even more confused because I couldn't tell which thing are actually being compared. Here are the two questions.

Gliding, rather than actually flying, through the air, the flying squirrel is somewhat misnamed, like the flying fish; neither animal is actually capable of flight but early explorers based the animals' names on perceived, rather than actual, reality.
A. the flying squirrel is somewhat misnamed, like the flying fish
B. the flying squirrel is somewhat misnamed, like flying fish are
C. flying squirrels, like flying fish, is somewhat misnamed
D. flying squirrels and flying fish, both some what misnamed
E. the flying squirrel is somewhat misnamed, as is the flying fish

According to the answer, the correct answer for the above question is E. We need to use as because the animals themselves aren't being compared, what is the being compared is the action.

One of the duties of the Security and Exchange Commission is to guarantee that individual or small investors have the same information about the financial health of a company as do the large, institutional investors.
A. as do the large, institutional investors.
B. as does the large, institutional investors.
C. like the large, institutional investors have
D. in addition to the large, institutional investors.
E. as the large, institutional investors.

The correct answer for this question is E. The answer says the comparison is made between the types of investors and the do in Choice A is added incorrectly. This explanation seems contradiction to the other question previously I listed. To me, both questions compares the action(because "individual or small investors have..." and "the flying fish is somewhat..."), not the noun.

Please help!!

Could you tell me why the second questions tells me that the type of investors are being compared.

[ilyana]

What is the source of these questions?
The first one is ok, but the second one is wrong (the answer should be A).

There're so many official questions to practice. Solving SC problems from suspicious sources can do more harm than good.

With Quantitative Section you can solve all problems that you could find; Math rules are always the same.
In SC, however, we're dealing with language: preferences, general trends, and very few "solid rules".
Our basic goal is to adopt test-makers' point of view on some issues, not someone else's, so it's safer to use official questions.

"Like" is used to compare nouns. "As" is used to compare clauses (subject+verb).

Most of the time you have to pay attention to technical things:
1) don't use "like" with verb in comparisons:
Like flying fish are --> wrong
2) don't use "as" only with a noun, without a verb, if you want a comparison:
As the large, institutional investors --> wrong

We can use "as"+noun structure, but not in comparisons:
As an actress, Stella Adler was one of the most influential artists of the world. --> in the capacity of an actress, we are not comparing her to any other actress.

3) put "like" as close as possible to a noun it modifies (but you don't have to think about it with "as"-comparisons) --> that's why A in the first question is wrong.
If it were something like:
The flying squirrel, like the flying fish, is somewhat misnamed.
Like the flying fish, the flying squirrel is somewhat misnamed. --> then it could be the correct answer (C in the first problem came close to that, but it has Subject-Verb disagreement issue).