The stars, some of them at tremendous speeds, are in motion just as th

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that - like planets, the stars are in motion, but they are so far away from the Earth that their apparent positions in the sky do not change enough for their movement to be observed during a single human lifetime.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Verb Forms + Grammatical Construction + Comparison + Parallelism

• “like” is used for comparing nouns, “as” is used for comparing actions/clauses, and “such as” is used for giving examples.
• A comparison must always be made between similar elements.
• If a list contains only two elements, they must be joined by a conjunction.
• Semicolons or "comma + conjunction" are used for introducing an independent clause.
• "who/whose/whom/which/where", when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma.
• Statements of universal fact are best conveyed through the simple present tense.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the present participle ("verb+ing" - "being" in this sentence) to refer to a statement of universal fact; remember, statements of universal fact are best conveyed through the simple present tense. Further, Option A incorrectly uses the "comma + conjunction ("yet" in this sentence)" construction to join two elements in a list - the verb phrases "are in motion" and "being so far away from the Earth"; please remember, if a list contains only two elements, they must be joined by a conjunction.

B: Correct. This answer choice acts upon the independent noun "the stars" with the active verb phrase "are in motion" to form a complete thought, leading to a complete sentence. Moreover, Option B correctly uses the clause "but they (the stars) are so far away from the Earth...lifetime", conveying the intended meaning - that some of the stars are in motion at tremendous speeds but are so far away from the Earth that their apparent positions in the sky do not change enough for their movement to be observed during a single human lifetime. Further, Option B correctly uses the simple present tense verb "are" to refer to a statement of universal fact. Additionally, Option B correctly uses the "comma + conjunction ("but" in this case")" construction to join the independent clauses "the stars are in motion" and "that...are so far away from the Earth...lifetime"; remember, semicolons or "comma + conjunction" are used for introducing an independent clause. Besides, Option B correctly uses "Like" to compare the nouns "the planets" and "the stars".

C: This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; since "Although like the planets the stars are in motion" is a dependent clause, and "yet so far away from the Earth...lifetime" is a modifying phrase, the sentence lacks an independent subject noun.

D: This answer choice incorrectly uses "As" to compare two nouns; please remember, “like” is used for comparing nouns, and “as” is used for comparing actions/clauses.

E: This answer choice incorrectly refers to "the planets" with the "which" phrase "some of which at tremendous speeds are in motion but...lifetime", incorrectly implying that some of the planets are in motion at tremendous speeds but are so far away from the Earth that their apparent positions in the sky do not change enough for their movement to be observed during a single human lifetime; the intended meaning is that some of the stars are in motion at tremendous speeds but are so far away from the Earth that their apparent positions in the sky do not change enough for their movement to be observed during a single human lifetime; remember, "who/whose/whom/which/where", when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma. Further, Option E incorrectly compares the action "are in motion" to the noun "the planets"; remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

The statements says that both the stars and planets are in motion , but since the stars are farther away from earth,human eyes will not be able to see them moving.

So,we need "but" in there to bring upon the actual meaning.Retain B and D.
Like the planets --> Compares the motion of stars with that of the planets . Correct answer
As the planets --> incorrect comparison as we are comapring the motion of planets with stars and not just the planets.

Kudos if it was helpful :D

Are you saying "being" is not at all a verb? My wordweb dictionary reports it as a verb too

Hi kiranck007,

“be” is an auxiliary verb, is/am/are/war/were/will etc. are different helping verbs in different forms.

Now is/am/are/war/were/will etc. are considered verbs but “be” or “being” juts by itself is never a verb that can complement a Subject. “being” is what is called present participle. Present participles are not verbs that can complement Subjects. For example:

The work is being done.
Joe, being a naughty boy, never finished his homework on time.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Please explain how B is correct. Manhattan SC states that 'Like' cannot be used for comparison if there is a clause. Isn't 'the stars are in motion' a clause or am i making a very stupid mistake here

I think you misunderstand the Manhattan SC. You are focusing on the part that "like" is modifying, when you should be focusing on the "like" itself.

It should not be "like [clause], ...". In this case we have "like [the planets], ..." which is "like [noun], ...". Another way to look at it:

[Like the planets, the stars] are in motion

Hi -- Two questions:

Can someone explain the difference here between "like" vs. "as"? I was under the impression that "as" is used to compare clauses vs. "like" which is used to compare nouns, correct?

I narrowed it down to B and D and chose D because I *thought* that I was comparing the "motion of the stars" to the "motion of the planets". Doesn't that warrant a clause comparison, in turn, using "as" as the comparison marker?

As a + 1 -- can someone purely use comparison to eliminate the 5 answer choices, I would love to see what is being compared. I can only eliminate "C" b/c of the "although" in the front creates an awkward comparison. Was I wrong?

Hi Russ,

I think you should consider reading my post from the first page:


Don't worry so much about the meaning when deciding between like and as; instead, consider the pure structure that follows. I suggest reading this e-GMAT post: as-vs-like-correct-and-incorrect-usages-133950.html


---
In this question, all of the choices are grammatically correct for like/as. There are other meaning issues (modifiers, "although," etc.), but the meaning of the comparison matches for ABCE, so we cannot eliminate them for comparison reasons. D, however, has a comparison problem.

In D, "as" is followed by a noun, so it is telling us that the stars are filling the function of (i.e. becoming) planets when those stars are in motion. What do we mean by function? Consider:

"The student acts like a teacher" - comparison to show that the student is not a teacher, but is acting in a SIMILAR manner
"The student acts as a teacher does" - comparison to show that the student is not a teacher, but is acting in a SIMILAR manner
"The student acts as a teacher" - telling us that the student is filling the role of a teacher (not in a way that is SIMILAR to a teacher, but that the student has actually BECOME a teacher, even if temporarily)

Also, in general, the GMAT seems to like to test the meaning of a comparison much more than the actual grammatical structure. Don't worry so much about like/as and focus more on the meanings that are generated by changing the order of the words.

Hope that helps

Hi chetan2u / mikemcgarry

Can you please explain why there is no pronoun ambiguity in B.
B) Like the planets, the stars are in motion, some of them at tremendous speeds, but they are

THEY can also refer to planets.

I am facing a lot of issue in pronoun ambiguity issues and hence I am not confident in eliminating options on the basis of pronoun ambiguity.

Please assist how can I comprehend this topic.

First and foremost, pronoun ambiguity has low priority. Many correct answers actually have some level of ambiguity. Only consider it when you have exhausted everything else. (Ambiguity means uncertain, not wrong. It is much worse to be wrong than uncertain.)

Second, a parallelism rule tells us the following:

When two clauses are joined by a conjunction and the second clause begins with a pronoun as the subject, that pronoun should refer to the subject of the first clause.

Here, we have the following structure:

[Modifier], [Subject] [Verb], but [Pronoun] [Verb]

As a result, we have two clauses joined by a conjunction, so the pronoun subject of the second clause ("they") must refer to the subject of the first clause ("stars"). Because "planets" is in a modifier, it is irrelevant to the parallel consideration because it is not the subject of the main clause.

[Edited to make it easier to understand.]

A primer on subgroup modifiers:

Six different forms of subgroup modifiers are frequently observed. These forms are illustrated using the example above - the first 3 forms are correct and the last three wrong.

1. The stars are in motion, some of them at tremendous speeds,.... Correct

2. The stars are in motion, some at tremendous speeds,.... Correct

3. The stars are in motion, some of which are at tremendous speeds,... Correct

4. The stars are in motion, of which some are at tremendous speeds,... Wrong

5. The stars are in motion, some of which at tremendous speeds,... Wrong

6. The stars are in motion, some of them which are at tremendous speeds,... Wrong

I disagree with this usage because it has an incorrect meaning. When the modifier says "at tremendous speeds", it is referring the stars being "in motion", not to an inherent characteristic of "the stars". Thus, the following is incorrect:

• The stars, some of them at tremendous speeds, are in motion - implies that the "tremendous speeds" is a characteristic of stars separate from their motion

To fix this, we need to keep the speeds about the motion. The following are correct:

• The stars, some of them moving at tremendous speeds, are in motion - awkward because we repeat the idea of motion, but not incorrect
• The stars are in motion, some of them at tremendous speeds, - much better

In other words, we have to be careful that the modifier both is grammatically correct and has the correct relationship to that which it modifies in terms of meaning. The difference in meaning in this example is subtle, but it is an important one for the GMAT.

Excellent observation, thank you for the post! I see your point and do agree with you. It is better to place the subgroup modifier after motion. Nevertheless, my intent for the post was to highlight the various possible uses, some of them correct and some wrong, of subgroup modifiers.

I chose B.

A was the second-best option.

A) The stars, some of them at tremendous speeds, are in motion just as the planets are, yet being

The improvable aspects that I found were:

- "some of them at tremendous speeds" should have been after "in motion", not before.
- It is unclear what subject does the verb "yet being" refers to. Does it refer to stars or to planets?

Hence, discarded. However, it was a good runner-up.

What do you think about the 2 reasons mentioned above?

However, I think that, in option B, it is not totally clear what does "they" refer to.

If a pronoun is subject of a clause and has two possible antecedents, one of them the subject of another clause within the sentence, then the pronoun would unambiguously refer to that subject antecedent.

The stars are in motion, but they....
The subject pronoun "they" clearly refers to the subject noun "stars", and not any other noun ( planets), by virtue of parallelism.

Hi sayantanc2k,

Could you explain this in a clearer way by putting an example, for instance?

"If a pronoun is subject of a clause and has two possible antecedents, one of them the subject of another clause within the sentence, then the pronoun would unambiguously refer to that subject antecedent."

I do not think that what you are stating is always the case.

Let us take option B as an example:

Like the planets, the stars are in motion, some of them at tremendous speeds, but they are so far away from the Earth that their apparent positions in the sky do not change enough for their movement to be observed during a single human lifetime.

"If a pronoun is subject of a clause..": They is the subject of a clause (they are so far away from the Earth ....).
"..has two possible antecedents..": The pronoun they has two possible antecedents - planets and stars.
"..one of them the subject of another clause..": Stars is the subject of another clause (the stars are in motion...).
"...pronoun would unambiguously refer to that subject antecedent": The pronoun they refers to the SUBJECT antecedent stars.