Like many famous jazz trumpet players, John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie

I was trapped by the subtle trap laid out in E. A good question and learning point indeed !

can someone further clarify why "as did" in choice E is incorrect. I would think that you're comparing X with Y (i.e. famous trumpet players played many instruments = x; and John played many instruments = y)

Option E is grammatically correct. However the meaning is slightly changed as already described in the post above:
like-many-famous-jazz-trumpet-players-john-birks-dizzy-gillespie-188730.html#p1444354

When there are two grammatically correct choices, stick to the original one (or the one that has the same meaning as the original).

I don't understand this. Isn't the necessary comparison this: Like X did, Y did.

Like compariosn compares Nouns/Pronouns...

Like x, y

Like many famous jazz trumpet players, John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie played many other musical instruments, including the piano.

Like doesn't compare actions, hence Like X did, Y did is not the perfect way...

Oh, thank you. Of course, 'like' can't be used that way. But I am not still convinced why the right answer is right.

So can I say "Like James, Henry played football"?

Yes, the above sentence is correct.

oh, of course. apparently working on GMAT SC confused me about basic sentences

The answer is much appreciated, thank you.

Like many famous jazz trumpet players, John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie played many other musical instruments, including the piano.

As the comparison is between "Dizzy Gillespie" and "many famous jazz trumpet players", that means it is comparing noun vs. noun. In this case, the usage of Like is correct

a) Like ===> CORRECT

b) As have ===> We do not need the verb "have" also "As" is used to compare actions

c) Just as with ===> Just means "Exactly" which is illogical here

d) Just like ===> Just means "Exactly" which is illogical here

e) As did ===> We do not need the verb "have" also "As" is used to compare actions

Hence, Answer is A

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i have another explanation than the usual one givven one by experts and that is " as did x, y did the same". here the first and second clause are not maintaining parallelism, first clause is in passive voice but the second clause is in active voice. HENCE THY LMAO IT MIGHT BE WRONG TO USE AS DID AT THAT PARTICULAR PLACE

RD

Dear VeritasPrepBrian IanStewart AnthonyRitz MartyTargetTestPrep VeritasPrepRon VeritasPrepHailey VeritasPrepErika VeritasPrepBrandon quixx23 AaronPond DmitryFarber ccooley GMATGuruNY,

Why is choice E. wrong?

May I quote content, which is very similar to this question, from MGMAT? No judgment or bias here. I just would like to invite GMATClub verbal experts to discuss the content subjectively and fruitfully.

According to P.100 Chapter 6 Comparisons MGMAT SC book


We know that subject-verb can be inverted. Hence, I think choice E. is right!

First, let me vent a bit about the wording above, which I see all the time on this forum and in prep company materials, and which is profoundly misleading. Any time someone says "According to the GMAT..." you should replace that phrase in your mind with "According to everyone...". There are no mathematical or grammatical rules that are true "according to the GMAT" that are not also true in mathematics or grammar generally. I've seen people write things like "according to the GMAT, zero is an even number." No, that's not true -- according to mathematics, zero is an even number. There are no special "rules" you need to learn that are true on the GMAT but that are false outside of the GMAT, so this phrase "according to the GMAT" always implies something nonsensical. In the quote above, the sentences "Like her brother, Ava aced the test" and "As her brother did, Ava aced the test" mean the same thing according to everyone who understands the meaning of those two sentences (though the 'did' should usually immediately follow 'as'). They don't mean the same thing only "according to the GMAT".

There's a difference though between that example and the sentence in the question above. The two sentences about Ava acing the test both describe a single past event. They mean the same thing. The sentence discussed in this thread is different. It discusses one past event (Gillespie played many instruments) and one continuing event (jazz musicians play many instruments). When that's the case, you can't use "as did" to describe the continuing event, since "as did" suggests that event is completed.

Hey Ian,

so in that case is "as have" the correct answer? Or is it wrong because the later part of the sentence contains "played" and not "plays" ?

That's a good question. I've read the responses in this thread, and the original prep company blog post explaining the answer to this question, and I can't make sense of the basis on which B is eliminated. The prep company claims B is grammatically incorrect, but it's grammatically fine. But A is a good answer too. Incidentally, the second half of the sentence needs to say "played", because Dizzy Gillespie is no longer alive to play any instruments, and I think the sentence is missing the word "other" before "famous jazz trumpet players", because Gillespie was himself a trumpet player, and the first half of the sentence suggests he wasn't -- it suggests he was similar to trumpet players in some respect.

It's a prep company question, not a real GMAT question, so I wouldn't worry about it much.

Hi, anybody can tell the difference between A and D? They are totally the same to me. Thanks.

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