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6. Comparisons

Terms in this set (8)

Critical Ideas for Comparisons
Comparisons must be logical and unambiguous

1. Be literal

"Walking through the forest, the mushrooms were colorful" is illogical because it literally says the mushrooms were walking through the forest

2. Triggers

"Like the poetry of Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris is pretty" is illogical and should include "THAT OF" before Chuck Norris

3. That of / those of

"The debt to gdp ratio of Greece is lower than THAT OF Japan." This example works
Comparison markers
Very common and easy to spot and should signal that you should check for logic and ambiguity

Like, unlike, as, compared to, contrast, different from, larger, slower, higher
Like vs. As
like v. as is an extremely confusing grammatical distinction; fortunately, the GMAT only scratches the surface of this complex topic.

"like" is used to compare nouns
"as" is used to compare clauses (subject plus verb).

Moreover, "like" is normally used to two compare similar but not identical nouns. In contrast, "as" is used to depict identical phenomenon. For example:

Dan acted like a clown
-My behaviors were similar to those of a clown

Dan acted as a clown
-I actually played the part of a clown

In the example at hand, owning and living in a freestanding house (clause with verb) is a goal, as owning and living in a freestanding house (clause with verb) was a goal of earlier generations. To correctly use "like," the sentence would have to directly compare nouns. A proper rewrite of this type might appear similar to the following:

The current generation, like earlier generations, desires to own and live in a freestanding house.
Like vs. Such As
like means similar, such as means for example
Just Like and So As To
ALWAYS WRONG
less vs. fewer
non-countable (less) vs countable (fewer)
Multiplying quantities
Use "as...as" and not "than"

"The car is three times older THAN you" is WRONG
"The car is three times as old as you" is RIGHT
Uses of did, do, does
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