Like the Carroll Street Bridges retractable design that met the

Question

Pack 4, Question 4 of 5:

Like the Carroll Street Bridge’s retractable design that met the demands of  street and river traffic in Brooklyn, so the Broadway Bridge’s vertical lift design met the demands of street and river traffic in Manhattan.

A. Like the Carroll Street Bridge’s retractable design that met the demands of
B. Like designing the Carroll Street Bridge to be retractable to meet demanding
C. Just like the Carroll Street Bridge’s retractable design that met the demanding
D. Just as designing the Carroll Street Bridge’s to be retractable to meet demanding
E. Just as the Carroll Street Bridge’s retractable design met the demands of

◀ Pack 4, Question 3  
 ▶ Pack 4, Question 5 
 ⏏ Question Pack Home

48 Hour Window To Win An $85 EMPOWERgmat Tuition Credit (1 Month Free!)   
Share your explanation!  The GMAT Club member with the most verified Kudos  in total on the 5 question SC Block 4 question pack will  win an $85 EMPOWERgmat tuition credit , which will entitle the winner to a full month of complete access to the EMPOWERgmat system. Even if you're not sure about your answer or your rationale, share your explanation to help boost your learning and earn a chance to win.

To be eligible, your explanation must:
 be submitted within the 48 hour window after this post was created
should explain your reasoning why the answer you chose is correct, and why the other 4 options are incorrect within 48 hours of this post

The OA and official explanation will be held until the 48 hour window has lapsed.

mykrasovski · Answer

The sentence tests an idiom just as X, so Y.

Any option containing "like" breaks the idiom. Hence, options (A) - (C) are incorrect. Option (D) incorrectly compares "designing" with "design". Correct option is (E).

suchithra · Answer

Like: Can only be used to compare nouns
As: Can be used to compare clauses

In this given sentence, we are comparing the similarity in both the designs meeting their demands. As is more recommended in this case. Eliminate A,B,C

Correct idiom would be Just as X, So Y where X and y should be parallel.

Choice D is not parallel.

Therefore Choice E is the correct answer

TestPrepUnlimited · Answer

Correct answer: E

ABCD: No conjugated verb in the first clause 
ABC: "  like ... so" is not idiomatic. "Just as ... so" is the proper construction. 
BCD: "Demanding" is not parallel with "met the demands." 
BD: Improper comparison between "designing ..." and "the Broadway Bridge's vertical lift design."

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation:

Like the Carroll Street Bridge’s retractable design that met the demands of  street and river traffic in Brooklyn, so the Broadway Bridge’s vertical lift design met the demands of street and river traffic in Manhattan.

A.  Like  the Carroll Street Bridge’s retractable design that  met  the  demands  of 
 B.  Like  designing the Carroll Street Bridge to be retractable to  meet   demanding  
 C.  Just like  the Carroll Street Bridge’s retractable design that  met  the  demanding  
 D.  Just as  designing the Carroll Street Bridge’s to be retractable to  meet   demanding  
 E.  Just as  the Carroll Street Bridge’s retractable design  met  the  demands  of

A review of our answer options reveals that we need to choose between starting the sentence with “like” or with “just as/just like,” and this tells us this sentence most likely will compare two things. We must also choose between a couple of different forms for the words “met” and “demand.”

Many times comparative phrases are idiomatic, so let’s look at the portion of the sentence that isn’t underlined to see how the second portion of the comparison is introduced. The second clause begins with “so.” The idiom for a comparison using “like” is “Like X, Y.” “So” or another conjunction is not used in this idiom. However, the idiom for a comparison using “as” is “as X, so Y.” Since the “so” is not underlined, then we must use the “As/just as X, so Y” idiom structure.  Options A, B, and C cannot be the correct answers because they are not idiomatic.

Option D begins “just as designing,” but the rest of the comparison says “so the Broadway Bridge.” This means the sentence is trying to compare the designing of one bridge with another actual bridge. Comparison must be of like items. Additionally, in the non-underlined portion of the sentence the phrase “the demands of” is used, and Option D uses “to meet demanding.” This is not parallel, and “demanding” doesn’t make complete sense as a modifier of traffic.  Option D also cannot be the best answer.

Option E compares a bridge with a bridge and using “the demands of” makes it parallel with the rest of the sentence.  Option E is the best answer.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Great job,  mykrasovski ! You cracked the code by figuring out the idiom we're working with and focusing on parallelism!

Well done! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  suchithra ! You figured out one of the tricks to answering this question: knowing when to use "like" vs. "as" in a comparison! Great job focusing the rest of your explanation on parallelism!

Kudos to you!

Sthk94 · Answer

Hi EMPOWERgmatVerbal,

I understand option E is correct because it follows the correct idiom As X, So Y.

But if SO was not there in the second clause, would option A been correct? 
 Like the Carroll Street Bridge’s retractable design  that met the demands of street and river traffic in Brooklyn,  the Broadway Bridge’s vertical lift design  met the demands of street and river traffic in Manhattan.

We would have been comparing the two designs

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Thanks for the question Sthk94 ! This mainly has to do with using "like" vs. "as" in comparisons. It's better to use "as" here because we're comparing two bridges and their ability to meet demands - not just the two bridges in general. Since the comparison is focused on two clauses, rather than just two nouns, it's better to use "as." Now, that's not to say that native English speakers will always get this right! We aren't the best at using like/as correctly in everyday speech or writing. You could certainly use "like" here (as long as it doesn't contain the "so" you mentioned), and most people wouldn't notice, but for the GMAT, it's still technically wrong. We hope that helps!

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Like the Carroll Street Bridges retractable design that met the

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Like the Carroll Street Bridges retractable design that met the

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards