Hi All,
As it is with traditional pharmacies, online drugstores rely on prescriptions to be successful, since it is primarily prescriptions that attract the customers, who then buy other health-related items.
On reading the sentence carefully, we know that this sentence presents a comparison. The intended comparison is between traditional pharmacies and online drugstores. The point of comparison is that just like traditional pharmacies, online drugstores also depend upon the success of prescriptions for the said reason.
Since there is a comparison in this sentence, we can use either “LIKE + Noun” or “AS + Clause”. Let’s run the POE.
POEA) As it is with traditional pharmacies, online drugstores rely on prescriptions to be successful:
Incorrect. Pronoun “it” is referring to the entire clause “online drugstores rely on prescriptions to be successful”. This is incorrect because a pronoun can only refer to a noun or a pronoun.
B) As with the case of traditional pharmacies, online drugstores rely on prescriptions to have success:
Incorrect. Since “as” has been used for comparison in this choice, it must be followed by a clause. But “with the case of traditional pharmacies” is a prepositional phrase and not a clause.
C) As is the case with traditional pharmacies, prescriptions are the cornerstone of a successful online drugstore:
Correct. “As” is followed by a clause. Also, this choice maintains the parallelism by using “is” and “are”. What is the case with traditional pharmacies? It is that prescriptions are the cornerstone for their success. Hence, the comparison is parallel here.
D) As traditional pharmacies, so online drugstores rely on prescriptions to be successful:
Incorrect. “As” is not followed by a clause.
E) Like traditional pharmacies, the cornerstone of a successful online drugstore is prescriptions:
Incorrect. This choice presents illogical comparison. Here “traditional pharmacies” have been compared to “the cornerstone”. Also, use of “so” is not correct.
1. In comparisons, “like” must be followed by a NOUN.
2. In comparisons, “as” must be followed by a CLAUSE.
3. Pronouns can only refer to nouns and other pronouns.
4. Comparison should always be logical.
Hope this helps. Thanks.
Shraddha
I cannot seem to understand why you have rejected option B on the basis of prepositional phrase? As per the "Usage of As" module in your course, As + prepositional phrases can be used to present comparison. The catch is of "ellipsis".
As with the case of traditional pharmacies, online drugstores rely on prescriptions to have success:
Since “as” has been used for comparison in this choice, it must be followed by a clause. But “with the case of traditional pharmacies” is a prepositional phrase and not a clause.
with the case of traditional pharmacies....
is the placeholder (dummy) "it". Why is "it" referring to a clause?
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