According to a recent poll, owning and living in a freestanding house

To clarify, "that" does not always function as a pronoun and even when functioning as a pronoun it's not always acting in this "new copy" fashion. This particular sentence, however, does have "that" acting as a pronoun where it would be a new copy. Here is another GMATPrep sentence that uses "that" in the same way: "The Neanderthal had a vocal tract like THAT of the apes" (I'm pulling from memory so that may not be word-for-word).

Using the pronoun "that" to represent a new copy doesn't work particularly well here. It makes sense when you are talking about things that obviously cannot be shared: "Their house looks just like that of my parents" or "Her dancing was superior to that of her rival". [Notice that the "new-copy" that construction is a bit awkward and can be easily stated in other ways, such as using the possessive.] In this sentence the goals are shared and not exclusive, so it doesn't really call for "that" as a pronoun.

The real kicker against "that" in this problem (as cited by the OA) is the lack of parallelism between the main clause and this subordinate clause. "That" would stand in the place of the very long idea "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land", which is followed by the verb "is". To be parallel, we would need to include the verb "was" after "that" to be parallel in structure. ....owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is a goal..., as that was... [again, I would prefer using the pronoun "it" to indicate the goals are the same]

KW

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Idioms

• “like” is used for comparing nouns, “as” is used for comparing actions/clauses, and “such as” is used for giving examples.
• Comparison must always be made between similar elements.

A: Trap. This answer choice incorrectly compares the clause “owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults” to the phrase “that of earlier generations”; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements. Further, Option A incorrectly uses “like” to compare a clause; remember, “like” is used for comparing nouns, “as” is used for comparing actions/clauses, and “such as” is used for giving examples.

B: This answer choice incorrectly compares the clause “owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults” to the phrase “that for earlier generations”; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements.

C: This answer choice incorrectly compares “owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults” to “earlier generations did”; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements.

D: This answer choice incorrectly compares the clause “owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults” to the phrase “have earlier generations”; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements.

E: Correct. This answer choice correctly compares the clauses “owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults” and “it was of earlier generations”. Further, Option D correctly uses “as” to compare two clauses.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Like" vs "As" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

'E' it is.

According to a recent poll, owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults, as it was of earlier generations.

E.
"owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land" is a clause and demands "as"; "was" is parallel with "is"

Clearly E for parallelsim and "as" for comparing two clauses
X is goal of you youg adults, as it was of earlier generation
--> X is goal of you youg adults, as X was [goal]of earlier generation.

According to a recent poll, owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults, like that of earlier generations.

The first sentence is "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults", we should look for similar structure in the 2nd sentence.

(A) like that of earlier generations
= like that (the goal) of earlier generations
= WRONG, not ll to 1st sentence

(B) as that for earlier generations
= WRONG, "as" is used to modify clause instead of noun "that"

(C) just as earlier generations did
= WRONG, because of "as" again

(D) as have earlier generations
= as earlier generations have
= not ll
=WRONG

(E) as it was of earlier generations
= as it was (the goal) of earlier generations
= ll with first sentence
= Correct

Ans is E

E

U can cut down the options - B, C and D.

Confusion comes between A and E. Right?

LIKE is used for comparison where SUCH AS is used for providing example.

Again another point is LIKE can be used two between two nouns or pronouns where AS is used to compare between two clauses.

E it is.

Apples Vs Apples.

x is still a goal of y (youth) as it was of z (earlier generations)

it refers to goal

Bulls eye.

According to a recent poll, owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults, like that of earlier generations.

a) like that of earlier generations - we need "as" to compare clauses
b) as that for earlier generations
c) just as earlier generations did
d) as have earlier generations
e) as it [goal] was of earlier generations - parallel.

According to a recent poll, owning and living.............is a goal of a majority of young adults, as goal was of earlier generations.

Hello friends, I am facing some problem with the use of pronoun "it" and "its" here.
How "it" in E is referring to "owning and living" phrase and why not to a free house?
And "its" is referring what?

The entire phrase is the subject:
"owning and living in a free standing house on its own land" and phrases are considered singular.
Thus,
the verb "is"(Singular)
AND
"it" refers to the entire phrase.

"house" can't be the main subject AS it is the object of the prepositional phrase "in a free standing house".

E is ||el as well:

"OWNING" is still a goal OF young
AS
"IT" was OF earlier generations

Meaning wise:
house is the goal.
Owning something is a goal.

Which one sounds more logical.

(A) like that of earlier generations -- "like that"- wrong comparison + not parallel
(B) as that for earlier generations - not parallel + "that" has a wrong usage here.
(C) just as earlier generations did - action by the earlier generations
(D) as have earlier generations - wrong usage as have
(E) as it was of earlier generations - this is perfectly parallel

"still a goal of a majority of young adults, as it was of earlier generations"

The answer is

do you mean that in the structure:

main clause + comma+like

"like" refers to the subject of the main clause. for example

I speake English, like you

in this sentence "Like you" modifies " I" . is that correct?

and so , in A we have

"like that of earlier generations" refer to " owning and living"

and we have

"like the goal of earlier generation" refers to "owning and living". this is absurd.

is my thinking correct?

Actually phrases can be plural as well. For example:

Sleeping and reading are his hobbies.

However, the sentence here is unique in that sense because owning and living in a free standing house on its own land is just one goal, and hence singular.

Perhaps what you might be getting slightly confused with the fact that Noun clauses are always singular.

According to a recent poll, owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults, like that of earlier generations.
A. like that of earlier generations
B. as that of for earlier generations
C. just as earlier generations did
D. as have earlier generations
E. as it was of earlier generations

Could you please help me explain the following points?
1. Does the possessive pronoun 'its' stand for freestanding house?
2. Within my limit knowledge, the underlined part = like a goal of earlier generations. Is it right? If not, could you explain for me?
3. I am confused between A and E. Are their meaning different from each other?

Thank you very much.

The meaning of answer A and E is not the same. "Like" should always be placed very close to the noun that it refers to. Here it is placed just after the noun "a majority of young adults" and we may have the impression that it is "a majority of young adults" and not their goals that are being compared with the goals of earlier generations.
Answer E solves this problem by using the comparison with "as."

To add to what Kyle Widdison stated above, we anyway cannot assume the verb (is/was) after that in option A, because this option uses like.

Remember that like is a preposition and so, cannot be followed by verb (prepositions can only be followed by nouns/pronouns/noun-phrases).