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 for earlier generations (C) just as earlier generations did (D) as have earlier generations (E) as it was of earlier generations https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/28/garden/americans-want-to-own-a-home-despite-rising-cost.html THE American household is changing, but the strength of its dream of owning a house remains undiminished. In an age of high interest rates and high construction costs, the circumstances of much of the population - smaller families, fragmented families or no family at all - would seem to favor owning smaller, easier-to-maintain condominiums or cooperatives or living in rental apartments. But the prospect of owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is an enduring element in American aspirations. According to a recent New York Times/CBS News Poll and interviews with owners and renters across the country, house ownership is still a goal of a majority of Americans, as it was of earlier generations .

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

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waytowharton

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28 Oct 2022, 09:22

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KarishmaB and other experts

I am still not clear why Option A is incorrect. Why can't we compare goal of a majority of young adults and goals of earlier generations?

Like goal of earlier generations, goal of a majority of young adults is owning and living in a freestanding house.

What is wrong in this? Please do help. Thanks in advance!

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28 Oct 2022, 10:46

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waytowharton

Here's the (A) version:

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.

To more clearly see what's wrong with that sentence, let's remove the introductory modifier and put the end on at the beginning.

Like that of earlier generations, owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land is still a goal of a majority of young adults.

We see that the sentence communicates that "owning and living in a freestanding house on its own land" is like "that of other generations" in that each of them is "still a goal of a majority of young adults."

So, one goal of young adults is "owning ... a house."

The other goal of young adults is "that of other generations."

What is "that of other generations"?????

Also, how is "that of other generations" still a goal of young adults?????

The sentence is practically gibberish.

waytowharton

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Thanks for your reply MartyTargetTestPrep,

Could you please help me in one additional doubt. Can't that in "like that of earlier generations" refer to goal and then the comparison would be between like goal of young adults and goal of earlier generations?

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28 Oct 2022, 12:40

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waytowharton

No, it can't because the sentence doesn't compare those things.

The sentence doesn't say "like that of earlier generations, the goal of young adults is."

It says, "like that the of earlier generations, owning ... a house ... is."

So, it doesn't compare "that" with "the goal."

It compares "that" with "owning ... a house."

Thus, "that" cannot stand for "the goal."

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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

It seems that "that" is referring back to "goal" (because of the "of"), so that seems incorrect. In addition, what exactly are we looking to compare here? the idea is to compare the facts that "something is xx" vs past, so we would need a sentence after the comma and we know that we cannot have a sentence after like, so it is incorrect

(B) as that for earlier generations

Mmm if we consider that ellipsis happened was considered here, we would have something like "as that for earlier generations was", so we have: "as owning and living for earlier generations was". Other way to consider this one, is to say that "as" is comparing "that" to another noun, so that is problematic, but lets keep it for now.

(C) just as earlier generations did

the verb in the previous sentences is "is" vs "did" here, so it is not good. Also the meaning is non sensical, what earlier generations did?

(D) as have earlier generations

similar as C) (have instead of did)

(E) as it was of earlier generations

lets try this one... it is replacing owning and living, so we have: as owning and living was (a goal) of earlier generations, looks good.

Answer is E.

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KyleWiddison

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

If we are using "that" along with a verb here in this sentence, that makes the sentence a clause. So, using "that" still does not make the option choice right. We will have to use "as" instead along with the verb so as to make the option the right answer. Am I missing anything here ?

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