Like ancient Egyptian architectural materials that were recycled in th

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, to quickly come to a correct answer! Before we dive in, here is the original question, with any major differences between each option highlighted in orange:

Like ancient Egyptian architectural materials that were recycled in the construction of ancient Greek Alexandria, so ancient Greek materials from the construction of the that city were reused in subsequent centuries by Roman, Muslim, and modern builders.

(A) Like ancient Egyptian architectural materials that were recycled in the construction of
(B) Like recycling ancient Egyptian architectural materials to construct
(C) Just as ancient Egyptian architectural materials were recycled in the construction of
(D) Just as they recycled ancient Egyptian architectural materials in constructing
(E) Just like ancient Egyptian architectural materials that were recycled in constructing

After a quick glance over the options, 2 pretty simple differences jump out:

1. Like / Just as / Just like
2. in the construction of / to construct / in constructing

Let's start with #1 on our list: like / just as / just like. We know that later in the sentence, it uses the conjunction "so" to connect the two items being compared. Whenever we compare two items using the word "so" to connect them, we MUST use "as" to introduce the comparison. This is an issue with using proper idioms:

Like X, so Y = WRONG
Just like X, so Y = WRONG
Like X, Y = CORRECT

As X, Y = WRONG
As X, so Y = CORRECT
Just as X, so Y = CORRECT

So let's look at which options use this idiom structure correctly or not:

(A) Like ancient Egyptian architectural materials that were recycled in the construction of...so --> Like X, so Y = WRONG
(B) Like recycling ancient Egyptian architectural materials to construct...so --> Like X, so Y = WRONG
(C) Just as ancient Egyptian architectural materials were recycled in the construction of...so --> Just as X, so Y = OK
(D) Just as they recycled ancient Egyptian architectural materials in constructing...so --> Just as X, so Y = OK
(E) Just like ancient Egyptian architectural materials that were recycled in constructing...so --> Just like X, so Y = WRONG

We can eliminate options A, B, and E because they don't use the proper idiomatic structure. Now, let's take a closer look at options C and D for any more problems. For this part, let's focus on parallel structure.

We can determine by looking at the rest of the sentence that we are comparing ancient Greek building materials to ancient Egyptian building materials. However, not all of the options do this correctly:

(C) Just as ancient Egyptian architectural materials were recycled in the construction of

This option is CORRECT because it uses parallel structure! It compares Egyptian materials to Greek materials, and it also uses parallel structure by saying "the construction of," which appears later in the sentence when discussing Greek materials.

(D) Just as they recycled ancient Egyptian architectural materials in constructing

This option is INCORRECT because it doesn't use parallel structure. It introduces a mysterious "they" into the sentence, which now compares people to materials, which isn't parallel in type. It also doesn't use the parallel "the construction of" to help balance out both sides of the comparison.


There you have it - option C is the correct answer because it uses proper parallel formatting throughout, and it also uses the correct idiomatic structure "Just as X, so Y" to compare two items! Focusing on these two simple grammar problems helped us answer the question quickly and accurately!


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