One of the duties of the Securities and Exchange Commission is to guar

Hello,
I'm really struggling with this question - Could someone please explain to me why it's not a?
....small investors have the same information as the large investors do... . Why isnt this correct? Is it because it puts "do" before the subject?

If it was the other way around - "a/ as the large, institutional investors do" - would that make it correct?

Thanks in advance for your help!

I also have doubt between A and E.

Why A is incorrect. Why we don't need do here

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Please provide a detailed explanation to this question. Although I understood the meaning difference in choices A and E, I don't understand why is E the correct answer because according to SC rules 'as' is always followed by a clause.

I guess the explanation is good.
One can also look for "same .. as" pair which rightly compares small and large investors.

For other cases
A is wrong placement of do makes sentence incorrect.
B wrong because of does
C is wrong because like used to compare nouns not actions
D is wordy and makes not much sense
E is correct, Short,same..as pair

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As is part of underlined portion of the sentence. Option E makes sense with as but without as there is no comparison


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I find a few issues with the OA.
1) as is not a part of the answer choice, hence there is no comparison according to choice E :- Which I fell is incorrect
2) I have learned that while using like and As we cannot use ellipsis to show action when used with as to make to short. This answer choice can now convey the meaning that the small investors as large investors should have all the information which is not the intended meaning and is illogical.
3) Using Do to refer back to having the information for some reason is correct for me

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Obviously the tussle is between option A and E.
Lets take two examples.
1. I prefer the blue dress as does John.
2. I prefer the blue dress as John does.

Obviously 2nd is correct. Since we are comparing the preferences, as should be followed by a clause. "John does" is a clause.

Similarly, our question can be answered. "as the large, institutional investors (do)" is the right clause, where "do" is optional.

One of the duties of the Securies and Exchange Commission is to guarantee that individual or small investors have the same information about the financial health of a company as the large, institutional investors do.
Do has been omitted in option E

One of the duties of the Securies and Exchange Commission is to guarantee that individual or small investors have the same information about the financial health of a company as do the large, institutional investors.

A. as do the the large, institutional investors

B. as does the large, institutional investors - helping verb 'does' is not correct for plural investors

C. like the large, institutional investors have - incorrect usage of like

D. in addition to the large, institutional investors - illogical - small investors should have the same information about the financial health of a company and large investors

E. as the large, institutional investors

Can you help me with options A and E?

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyMurray , DmitryFarber , daagh , generis , other experts - please enlighten

I chose A in this question because I thought "as" is used to compare phrases not nouns. In choice E it seems like we are comparing small investors having the same information to large investors. Could some share why my thought process is incorrect here?

Marty Sir,

Let me, please, ask a couple of follow-up questions:

1. Why can’t “do”, in the phrase “as do the large, institutional investors” in choice A, can’t stand in for the verb “have”, which comes earlier in the phrase “small investors have” ?

This way A would read “as have the large, institutional investors”, which is equal to the correct sentence you suggested later in your post.

2. In the construction “the same X as Y”, shouldn’t X and Y be logically parallel? Because E reads as “the same information as investors”, it seems to illogically imply that information and investors are similar things, doesn’t it?

You said that the meaning of A is ambiguous and thus E is preferable. However, E likewise seems to lend itself to equivocal interpretation.

Many thanks for your reply in advance.

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-



Choice A: Option A incorrectly compares the actions of the "Securities and Exchange Commission" to the actions of the "large, institutional investors" through the use of the phrase "as do"; in this manner, this answer choice alters the sentence to mean that both the "Securities and Exchange Commission" and "large, institutional investors" perform the same function. Thus, Option A is incorrect.

Choice B: Option B commits the same meaning-related error seen in Option A. Furthermore, there is a subject-verb disagreement between "does" and "institutions". Thus, Option B is incorrect.

Choice C: Option C uses "like" to refer to a clause. Thus, Option C is incorrect.

Choice D: Option D alters the meaning of the original sentence by implying that the "Securities and Exchange Commission" must ensure that individual and small investors "have" "the large, institutional investors" in addition to the information. Thus, Option D is incorrect.

Choice E: Option E correctly conveys the intended meaning of the sentence by modifying "same information" with "as the large, institutional investors". Thus, Option E is correct.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Like v/s As on GMAT”, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

One of the duties of the Securities and Exchange Commission is to guarantee that individual or small investors have the same information about the financial health of a company as do the large, institutional investors.

A. as do the large, institutional investors

"Do" here is a plural form. it cannot refer to guarantee(singular). The only reference I can trace for "do" is "have". If my reasoning is correct, how is A different from E, if not much clearer . Please help. Thank you

Hi,

I am happy to help -- the first part of your reasoning is correct; however, do note that 'guarantee' is a plural verb ('guarantees' would be the singular equivalent).

As far as (E) is concerned, by omitting the helping verb, there is possible ambiguity as to which 2 nouns we are comparing grammatically+logically -- are we comparing 'small investors' with 'large investors' (the correct logical comparison) or are we comparing financial health/information/company with large investors (also possibly logical, but ambiguous). By adding in the helping verb 'do', there is no grammatical ambiguity as we would be comparing clauses now -- individual or small investors have ...<<Clause 1>> AND do the large, institutional investors <<Clause 2>>

Hope this helps

Thanks Paramjit. This helps. I marked A as well but seems like E is the right answer. Thoughts?

I don't know what the source of this problem is but I would have marked (A) here.

The problem is not that 'do' cannot refer to guarantee. Look at this:

A has a beautiful house as do many of my friends.

Whether you use 'do' or 'does' depends on the subject. - "A has" but "Many of my friends have"

The problem is this: One of the duties of A is to guarantee that B has the same info as does C.

The only comparison being discussed here is "B has the same info" so the comparison will be completed by "as does C".
If 'as' does not complete the comparison of 'same', then the sentence makes no sense.


and of course we know that 'do' adds to the clarity because of the following reason:

Take a simpler example:

A is taller than B. - Correct
A has a bigger car than does B. - Correct
A has a bigger car than B - Does it mean that A's car is bigger than B (the size of B itself)? We want to say that A's car is bigger than B's car. Hence the use of 'does' brings in clarity as done in the example above.

Similar is the case here.

@GMATNinja
please share your thoughts on this question