As with the RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, which caused more compartments to flood with water than was believed possible by the ship architects and sank the “unsinkable” ship.

A. As with the RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, which caused
B. As with the RMS Titanic, the damage inflicted on the starboard side of the SS Andrea Doria caused
C. Like the RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, causing
D. Like the RMS Titanic, the damage inflicted on the starboard side of SS Andrea Doria caused
E. Like the RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, which caused

The options show we must examine the items being compared and the idiomatic terminology for comparisons (“as” or “like) to accurately correct this sentence.

The first part of the comparison is “RMS Titanic,” which is a ship, so the most logical comparison would be another ship. However, Options B and D have “the damage inflicted” as the second item in the comparison. If we were comparing the damage of the RMS Titanic to the damage of the SS Andrea Doria, that would work, but these options compare one ship to the damage of another ship. These comparisons are not parallel. Options B and D cannot be the best answers.

Option C compares ship with ship, but it uses “causing” instead of “which caused.” “Causing” makes sense with the first part of this clause (causing more compartments to flood with water than was believed possible by the ship architects), but the clause has two parts. The part after the “and” needs to work with “causing.” In this option, the clause says “causing sank” or “starboard side, sank the.” Neither of those is grammatically correct, and they make no sense. Option C is not the correct answer.

Now we are left with the comparisons “as with the” or “like the.” Idiom dictates that we use “like” to compare nouns and “as” to compare actions or verb phrases. In our sentence we are comparing a ship to a ship, which are two nouns. “Like” is used to compare nouns, so Option E is the best answer.
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It’s a nice tricky one.
One can’t answer it right unless he/she is aware that “like/unlike” must modify a noun or a noun phrase when used for comparisons — always on the GMAT.

“As”, when used for comparisons requires a verb
Eg.
Brian is as smart as Adam (is).

Another thing to note— “which” Modifies the noun it touches or is closest to — in case there are modifiers between them.

Coming to answer options-
I’m highlighting the errors within brackets as I’m unable to see the colour options on my phone and I’m doing this while I’m unable to sleep, so bear with me here

A. As (with the) RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard (side, which) caused

“As did x, y did” is the right way to compare using adjective “as”

Comparison is done okay here, but “with” is a wrong word.. As “did” X, Y “did/suffered”

And “side” can’t cause anything.. wrong usage of “which”

B. As (with the) RMS Titanic, the damage inflicted on the starboard side of the SS Andrea Doria caused

Wrong comparison of RMS titanic to the damage

C. Like the RMS Titanic, the SS
Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, causing

It’s right. “Causing” correctly defines the cause and effect relationship and like is perfectly used to compare two nouns

D. Like the RMS Titanic, the damage inflicted on the starboard side of SS Andrea Doria caused

Like is wrongly used to compare a noun and a noun phrase

E. Like the RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, which caused

Correct as C)
But “which” modifies “side “
Which can’t cause any damage/flooding as seen in the original sentence

Leaving C as our winner here

Posted from my mobile device

IMO the correct answer was C, but unfortunately it popped up as E


As with the RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, which caused more compartments to flood with water than was believed possible by the ship architects and sank the “unsinkable” ship.

Analysis:-

Consepts tested are Like Vs As & VerbING modification & ",which" modification

Lets see the answer choice -

A. As with the RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, which caused - INCORRECT - "the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side" - A clause is compared with a noun, "the RMS Titanic" - not the case.
B. As with the RMS Titanic, the damage inflicted on the starboard side of the SS Andrea Doria caused - INCORRECT - As mentioned above
C. Like the RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, causing - The error mentioned in option A & B are rectified with the use of "LIKE";- two entities are being compared are nouns, Correct - ",causing.........." - The VerbING modifier when used after comma modifies the preceding clause, showing the result of action mentioned in the preceding clause - Correct Usage
D. Like the RMS Titanic, the damage inflicted on the starboard side of SS Andrea Doria caused - Illogical comparison between "the RMS Titanic" & "the damage", awkward meaning - INCORRECT
E. Like the RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, which caused - INCORRECT - ",which...." used to modify the immediately attached noun, (in some case, a far away noun separated with noun pharases but portrays logical meaning & subject ambiguity should not be there), here ",which...." modifies "the starboard side...." but that has not caused the "more compartments to flood with water than was believed possible by the ship architects and sank the “unsinkable” ship."??? makes no sense, INCORRECT.

C is wrong, because "causing" does not go with the second part of the sentence. It probably would have been correct if "and sank the...." was not a part of the sentence.

Thanks
Anant

Hi, but why touch rule isn’t applied here for “which” IN option E?
According to my knowledge, “which “ modifies the noun entity it touches (after removing the modifier, at times).
So, why not here?

Shrey9

Hello. The touch rule for which has some exceptions. "Which" can jump over prepositional phrases and refer to the noun before the preposition, but only in exceptional cases. In this case "damage to the starboard side, which caused" the highlighted part is a prepositional phrase modifying "damage". So "Which" can refer to "damage".

Also Shrey9, the objective in a sentence correction problem is not to find a 100% correct answer, but to find 4 incorrect answers. All the other 4 answers have definite errors, so E should be the correct one

Hope this helps.

Cheers mate.

IMO the answer must be E. Let us analyze the issues going on in this question one by one.

1. As with vs Like:
Clearly like is the correct idiomatic usage and right comparison here

2. Between C, D and E:
D has a comparison error "Like the RMS Titanic, the damage" comparing ship with damage is incorrect

3. There is a doubt between C and E going on here
E looks like a wrong answer when we look only at the underlined part "Like the RMS Titanic, the SS Andrea Doria suffered damage to the starboard side, which caused" which follows the touch rule and modifies the noun, that's correct. But it can even modify a noun entity "damage to the starboard side"

4. What's wrong in C?
See this list

• causing more compartments to flood with water than was believed possible by the ship architects and
• sank the “unsinkable” ship.

Can these pe parallel elements in a grammatically correct sentence. No. Hence we can get rid of C

E remains as the only potential answer

Hello Shrey9!

You were really close! Here is our explanation for what's wrong with option C:

Option C compares ship with ship, but it uses “causing” instead of “which caused.” “Causing” makes sense with the first part of this clause (causing more compartments to flood with water than was believed possible by the ship architects), but the clause has two parts. The part after the “and” needs to work with “causing.” In this option, the clause says “causing sank” or “starboard side, sank the.” Neither of those is grammatically correct, and they make no sense. Option C is not the correct answer.

In option E, the "which caused..." modifier is actually referring back to the noun phrase "damage to the starboard side," which is totally okay.

Make sure to tag us at EMPOWERgmatVerbal if you have any questions!
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Hello J2S2019!

You were so close! Here is our explanation of what's wrong with option C:

Option C compares ship with ship, but it uses “causing” instead of “which caused.” “Causing” makes sense with the first part of this clause (causing more compartments to flood with water than was believed possible by the ship architects), but the clause has two parts. The part after the “and” needs to work with “causing.” In this option, the clause says “causing sank” or “starboard side, sank the.” Neither of those is grammatically correct, and they make no sense. Option C is not the correct answer.

In option E, the "which" modifier is referring back to the nearest noun, which is the word "damage to the starboard side." The phrase "to the starboard side" is a prepositional phrase, which modifiers can't refer to. So it's really referring back only to the word "damage." The other stuff in between is just there to throw you off. The GMAT can be tricky that way!

Make sure to tag me at EMPOWERgmatVerbal if you have any questions!
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Well done, saukrit!

You figured out the trick to deciding between options C & E! Modifiers can be tricky, but you cracked it!

Kudos to you!
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EMPOWERgmatVerbal

Can you please explain in E what does which refers?
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daagh

Dear Mr Daagh,

Can you share you views on this question? It makes sense to eliminate E as it does not go with the part after the and,however, i marked C incorrect because of the use of which - modifying the closest noun.

Can you comment on the level of this question in terms of quality and offer your two cents.

Thanks and Regards
Sambhav