6th Edition Strategy Guide 8, Page 105 - Solution to Q3

[ParthL243]

Dear All,
This is my first post on this forum, so my anticipatory apologies for any unintentional mistake that may follow.

This is with reference to a certain Comparison Problem Set. The location has been mentioned above in the subject of the post.

3. Juggling is a favourite pastime for me, like for you.

I understand the error in the sentence.Since 'like' and 'for' are prepositions, they cannot be used back to back. As prepositions only follow a noun or a pronoun.
In my opinion, 'Juggling' is used as a 'Gerund' and the sentence doesn't contain any working verb.
However, the corrected sentence as mentioned in the book is 'Juggling is a favourite pastime for me, as it is for you.'
Although my proficiency in Sentence Correction is a far cry from that of the authors of the book. I feel the correct form would be - 'Juggling is a favourite pastime for me, like it is for you.'

Thank you. I would appreciate any response to above.

Regards,
L.

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Thanks for your post.

In my opinion, 'Juggling' is used as a 'Gerund' and the sentence doesn't contain any working verb.

You're right that 'juggling' is a gerund - it's a noun referring to the activity of juggling. However, there is a verb in the sentence: the word 'is'.

I feel the correct form would be - 'Juggling is a favourite pastime for me, like it is for you.'

I don't feel that this sentence is wrong either; I would probably use a similar construction in speech. However, GMAT conforms to the standards of slightly formal, perhaps old-fashioned written English, by which 'like' is used to compare nouns, and 'as' clauses, thus making your example incorrect.

[ParthL243]

Thank you for your response, Mr. Higgins. I really appreciate it.

Based on your explanation, am I safe in making the assumption that 'As' is used to compare 'Clauses' and since a clause contains both a subject and a working verb, in the event either a subject or a working verb is dropped from a clause, thereby converting it into a phrase, 'Like' will used in such a case.

Thanks Again.

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

No problem. That sounds like a confusing way to think about things. We can't just 'drop' a subject or a verb from a sentence. Take the example you gave (with a correction):

Juggling is a favorite pastime for me, as it is for you.

This is comparing the fact that juggling is a favorite pastime for me, and it is for you also. If I wanted to compare you and me, I could say:

Like me, you love juggling.

This is now comparing me and you directly.