Although fruit can no longer grow once it is picked, it continues for

Question

Although fruit can no longer grow once it is picked, it continues for some time to respire, taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide,  similar to the way human beings breathe .

(A) similar to the way human beings breathe

(B) similarly to human beings who are breathing

(C) just like the breathing of human beings

(D) as human beings when breathing

(E) just as human beings do when they breathe

VeritasPrepErika · Accepted Answer

Let's quickly slash-and-burn the original sentence to make this a little easier:

Although fruit can no longer grow once it is picked,  it continues for some time to respire,  taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide,  similar to the way human beings breathe.

continues for some time to respire, similar to the way human beings breathe.

"Similar" is an adjective, so "similar to the way human beings breathe" must describe a noun that exists in the sentence (as mentioned by other users, this is also necessary for parallelism within the comparison). So what noun does it describe? "Some time"? "Fruit"? No! It should describe "the way fruit respires", but that's not a noun in this sentence. It can't describe the verb "to respire", so there is no logical referent for "similar to the way human beings breathe". A cannot be the answer.

Taking the slash-and-burned sentence and plugging in E:

continues for some time to respire, just as human beings do when they breathe.

Helper verbs like "to be" (is, are, was, were, will be, have been, etc.) and "to do" (does, do, did, will do, have done, etc.) imply other verbs, but again, those other verbs must exist in the sentence. A lot of confusion regarding whether or not "do" implies "respire" or "continue to respire", but it just doesn't matter — they both create reasonable meanings:

continues for some time to respire, just as human beings do   when they breathe.
  continues for some time to respire, just as human beings do   when they breathe.

Either way, a logical sentence where "as" (a word that compares two parallel verbs) compares two parallel verbs! Moral of the story, check your referents, and don't get hung up on things where you aren't sure of the rule — there's a decent chance it doesn't matter.

soumanag · Answer

Although fruit can no longer grow once it is picked, it continues for some time to respire, taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide,  similar to the way human beings breathe .

(A) similar to the way human beings breathe
(B) similarly to human beings who are breathing
(C) just like the breathing of human beings
(D) as human beings when breathing
(E) just as human beings do when they breathe

As should be used when comparing action. Like should be used when comparing nouns.  
'like' and 'similar' are almost same in usage both are used to describe similarities in character. 
He is like his father.
All the balls in the bag are similar in color.

so only D&E are left. D compares respiration of fruit to human beings.
Correct option E

GMATNinja · Answer

A), (B), (C), and (D) all have modifier issues, but I'd describe those issues a little differently than you did.

"Similar" is an adjective, so it should compare two nouns or noun phrases. Here, it sounds like "carbon dioxide" is similar to "the way humans breathe." That makes no sense - the  way  someone breathes can't be similar to a gas. (A) is out.

The phrase "similarly to human beings" is a mess. "Similarly" is an adverb, and so seems to describe the actions "taking... and giving." But how can "taking and giving" be compared to the noun, "human beings?" That's totally incoherent. Eliminate (B).

Exact same problem we saw in (A). Get rid of (C).

The issue here is meaning. It kind of sounds like fruit is giving off carbon dioxide in the role of a human being! Fruit could certainly be eaten  as  a snack, but it can't do anything  as  a human being. Eliminate (D).

And that leaves us with (E), which is our winner.

I hope that clears things up!

rashminet84 · Answer

Respiration in fruits is an activity that occurs in humans when they breathe. That doesn't mean fruits breathe. E conveys this best

jeeteshsingh · Answer

81. Although fruit can no longer grow once it is picked, it continues for some time to respire, taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide, similar to the way human beings breathe (A) similar to the way human beings breathe Not correct.... similar isn't correct here.. (B) similarly to human beings who are breathing As if humans we have humans who aren't breathing as of now :lol:

Incorrect (C) just like the breathing of human beings breathing of human beings is not correct. breathing is not matching with continues (D) as human beings when breathing Not correct..... run off sentence / clause.... (E) just as human beings do when they breathe Perfect match!

CheriInfinite · Answer

(A) similar to the way human beings breathe

this implies that fruits and human beings breathe in a similar fashion

(B) similarly to human beings who are breathing

similarly is awkward

(C) just like the breathing of human beings

same reasoning as the first one

(D) as human beings when breathing fruits respire

as is awkward

(E) just as human beings do when they breathe correctly implies that fruits respire, just like human beings to when they breathe

correct option

Eden · Answer

stripping the sentence:
 fruit(noun) + continues ( verb)...(comparison) ... noun+ verb
to maintain parallelism, we require an answer that has noun followed by a verb

only E has the proper form.

contacttoakhil · Answer

Fruit continues to respire,.....,  similar to the way  human being breathe

Similarly  OR  in similar way ....I found this construction wrong.

Fruit continues to respire.....in a similar way Human also breathe.

Among the choices A is not right. 
B is wordy and also wrong.
 similarly to human  beings who are  breathing  (breathing represents continuous action...an action which is still going on)
C is wrong as it compares 
 Fruit continues to respire  with  breathing of human beings 
D is also wrong for same reason.

E is proper construction.

Although fruit can no longer grow once it is picked, it  continues  for some time  to respire , taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide,  just as   human beings do   when they breathe

doe007 · Answer

Among all the options, it is easy to eliminate B, C, and D. Contenders remain A and E.

Analysis for option A:
"Similar" can modify only nouns as it is an adjective. Adjectives refer to immediately preceding noun when placed after an comma. In this case, "carbon dioxide" is illogically compared to "the way human beings breathe".
It makes sense to compare between "respire" and "breathe" here to have correct meaning of the sentence; but, "respire" is not noun and so "similar" cannot refer to "respire".

Analysis for option E:
"Just as" is used to compare two clauses correctly.

Hence, correct answer is E.

kinjiGC · Answer

(A) similar to the way human  beings  breathe 
 -> being is to be used when it is on going. It is not a ongoing activity but it is true for eternity -> Incorrect

(B) similarly to human beings who are  breathing 
 Breathing is not a verb and we require a clause to compare.-> Incorrect

(C) just like the breathing of human beings
 There is a comparison error and "just like" is not a correct idiom. "Just as X as Y" or "as X ax Y" is a correct idiom -> Incorrect

(D) as human beings when breathing
 again breathing is a not a verb. We need a helping verb to support "breathing" or simply breathe. -> Incorrect

(E) just as human beings do when they breathe
 Perfect-> do properly compares the "respire" act of the fruit with that of human beings. -> Correct

nhattruong1302 · Answer

Although fruit can no longer grow once it is picked, it continues for some time to respire, taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide, similar to the way human beings breathe

(A) similar to the way human beings breathe
 imply that fruit can breath
 
(B) similarly to human beings who are breathing
 Compare action to people
the choice is wordy

(C) just like the breathing of human beings
 compare action to biological process in humans

(D) as human beings when breathing
 wrong using of "as"

(E) just as human beings do when they breathe
 Correctly compare action of fruit when repiring to action of people when breathing

teaserbae · Answer

daagh   Bishal123456789 
Can you please explain why A is wrong and E is correct ?
I thought E is wrong because do refer to continue it cannot refer to respire

daagh · Answer

One important feature of comparison is that when we compare two nouns, there is no need to bother about the action. This happens mostly in linking verbs and status verb etc. In such instances, it is often possible that one of the compared nouns will not even express action.

However, when we compare an active action represented by a verb with another action, the nouns are relegated to the back yard.

Here, in this case, it is not that a noun namely fruit is compared with another noun human beings. It is the action of the fruit, that is, fruit's respiration that is being compared with another action, namely, the human being's breathing.

Here one can see that in A, the fruit is compared with (similar to) the way human beings breathe. Hence, the comparison is faulty. In E, the comparison is between how the fruit respires to how the human being breathes.

Bishal123456789 · Answer

AjiteshArun  I am confused between A and E. Please Explain and secondly what does do refer to in E?

Krishnahelps · Answer

Hi,

I understand why option-E is correct. I don't understand how the use of when is correct here. Human beings always breathe, what is the need of using when here? I know that when is used to refer to a time frame- point of time, age, decade, etc. How is this usage correct. Please help here.

Thanks in advance!

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  ankitapugalia ,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe that we can help resolve your doubt.

The use of "when" is correct in this sentence, as the process referred to here - "taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide" - occurs only during another action, humans breathing; thus, the use of "when" signifies that humans take in oxygen and carbon dioxide while breathing. Further, technically speaking, humans do not breathe constantly; one can hold one's breath or be unable to breathe for some reason, and during that time one will not be taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide. For this reason, "when" is used here.

Hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

Although fruit can no longer grow once it is picked, it continues for some time to respire, taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide, similar to the way human beings breathe.

We need get a basic understanding, what is being compared, is it fruit to human beings or is it an action to another action. It is an action comparison. So, "as" can fit the bill.

(A) similar to the way human beings breathe -> fruit (noun) is compared with the way human beings breathe (action). Incorrect.

(B) similarly to human beings who are breathing -> We have noun to noun comparison, but, "similarly to" incorrect.

(C) just like the breathing of human beings -> Like is incorrect for comparing action.

(D) as human beings when breathing -> We have compared noun to noun, but we need to compare action to action. Incorrect.

(E) just as human beings do when they breathe -> This is an action to action comparison. Let's keep it.

So, I think E.

Sachinpri · Answer

I have 2 doubts-
1)"similar to the way human beings.." modifies "taking in oxygen..." OR "it continues for some time..."?Kindly explain
2)While solving my thought process was that "similar to.." modifies "taking in oxygen...";I eliminated A and B because taking in oxygen and giving off Carbon DIoxide is exactly the same as human beings do,not similar.
I eliminated C because taking in Oxygen and giving off.. is not "just like the breathing of human beings"
I eliminated D because it was missing the verb.
Was my POE correct?
Thanks

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Sachinpri ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your queries,

1. In Option A "similar to the way human beings breathe" modifies "taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide".

2. Your reasoning here is, broadly, correct; kudos.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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