Researchers have questioned the use of costly and experimental diagnos

Question

Researchers have questioned the use of costly and experimental diagnostic tests  to identify food allergies, such as  milk, that supposedly disrupt normal behavior.

(A) to identify food allergies, such as

(B) to identify food allergies, like

(C) to identify food allergies, such as to

(D) for identifying food allergies, like that of

(E) for identifying food allergies, such as for

MichaelS · Accepted Answer

I'm just going to reproduce this with the underlining in place:
Researchers have questioned the use of costly and experimental diagnostic tests  to identify food allergies, such as  milk, that supposedly disrupt normal behavior.
(A) to identify food allergies, such as
(B) to identify food allergies, like
(C) to identify food allergies, such as to
(D) for identifying food allergies, like that of
(E) for identifying food allergies, such as for

The MGMAT approach usually starts with splits, but sometimes we make exceptions. In particular, when the original sentence includes a parallel marker, we know that the stuff after that marker must be structurally similar to some earlier logically comparable stuff. In this case, the phrase  such as  is a sort of parallel marker. Whatever follows the  such as  has to be an example of  food allergies . 
A) Milk is not an allergy. Eliminate A.
B) This still offers milk as an example of an allergy, or perhaps compares allergies to milk. Either way, it's wrong. Eliminate B. 
C) As awkward as this sounds, it's actually defensible.  Such as to  here means  such as (an allergy) to . Don't eliminate C.
D)  That  stands in for  allergies , creating two problems. First,  that  is singular while  allergies  is plural. Second,  allergy of  is unidiomatic. Eliminate D.
E)  Allergy for  is also unidiomatic. Eliminate E.

C it is.

By the way, I imagine that some began by eliminating B and D, because they use  like  rather than  such as  to introduce an example. That's actually a complicated issue.
First, every time that I have seen a choice between  like  and  such as  on a real GMAT SC, the right answer used  such as .
BUT second, in at least one OG explanation, GMAC acknowledges that  like  can introduce examples in some circumstances. 
BUT third, you should not use  like  to introduce examples unless you mean those examples to be restrictive. If I say  I enjoy movies like Miller's Crossing , I mean  I enjoy movies relevantly similar to Miller's Crossing . I'm not just giving you an example of a movie, but an example of the  sort  of movie I enjoy. 
SO finally,  like  is wrong for the sentence above. Feel free to eliminate B and D for that reason.

Oh, and a small point about daagh's answer. I agree with him that this seems an unlikely question, but the comma before  that  isn't a problem, because the comma doesn't introduce the  that  clause, it closes the phrase right before the  that  clause.

Want more detail? Daagh is correct that you shouldn't use a comma to introduce a restrictive clause, and that relative clauses that begin with  that  are restrictive, but the comma isn't used to introduce the clause here. Rather, the pair of commas are used to set off the phrase  such as to milk . Without that phrase, the correct answer would read,  Researchers have questioned the use of costly and experimental diagnostic tests to identify food allergies that supposedly disrupt normal behavior.  No comma problems.

daagh · Answer

Please rest assured that this topic would never appear in GMAT. The non-underlined part has a comma before ‘that’ and the relative pronoun is supposed to modify either tests or allergies, which are far placed from where they should stand. Milk cannot be its modifier. After all, milk is not supposedly going to disrupt normal behavior.

Still for the heck of it, let us solve this.

The passge seeks to avoid some experiments to identify food allergies to some foods such as to milk. If we do not use the preposition ‘to’ milk, then milk itself becomes the allergy, which is rather illogical. In addition, who is going to spend in costly experiments to identify ordinary foods such as milk?

Hence, the use of preposition  to  becomes essential in the given context. It may be noted that ‘to’ is not an infinitive, which normally precedes a base verb. Therefore, C is the choice, in spite of the inelegance of the phrase  such as to milk.

douglasvg · Answer

I chose C

A and B -> wrong comparison, milk is not an allergy
D -> That is singular, and the use of LIKE is wrong

Between C and E, I chose the one that is more concise and clear, therefore C

Sirakri · Answer

Choices B & E use like to present examples - Eliminated
A presents milk as allergy - Eliminated
E - allergic to is right usage, not for.

C

pafrompa · Answer

Question here, I thought "to/for" are tied to "use" not "allergic". "use for doing something" vs "use to do something" the first sounds better. Ended up picking E because of this

DmitryFarber · Answer

There's more than one "to." Only C correctly describes an allergy "to milk."

Nightmare007 · Answer

IMO its C : 
 Idiom error - allergy to -

roadrunner · Answer

The use of X to identify is a correct idiom usage. Eliminate D & E
like is incorrectly used to present examples - eliminate B

"such as milk" here milk is nonsensically presented as an example of food allergies - eliminate A

Ans: C

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

Researchers have questioned the use of costly and experimental diagnostic tests to identify food allergies, such as milk, that supposedly disrupt normal behavior.

(A) to identify food allergies,  such as 
(B) to identify food allergies,  like 
(C) to identify food allergies,  such as to 
(D) for identifying food allergies,  like that of 
(E) for identifying food allergies,  such as for

Like is used for comparison , as is used for example

Option A is change in intended meaning since milk itself is not an allergy,
Option B is incorrect usage of like,
 Option C is correct answer(idiomatically as well), 
Option D is incorrect usage of like,
Option E is right usage of as but such as for is idiomatically incorrect.

09173140521 · Answer

In A, “Milk” cannot be an “allergy”, however we can have “allergy to Milk”.
In C, “allergies such as to milk” means “allergies to” food such as milk. It is idiomatic. Hence, C is the best choice.

antartican · Answer

(A) to identify food allergies, such as 
--->> thi imply that milk is an allergy which is incorrect. 
(B) to identify food allergies, like
-->> safely use the rule that like is for comparison and such as is for example. eliminated
(C) to identify food allergies, such as to
--> allergy to milk, sounds correct. And the final answer too
(D) for identifying food allergies, like that of
-->> like rule . 
(E) for identifying food allergies, such as for 
-->>food allergy for milk is incorrect.

ChiranjeevSingh · Answer

Here's the   official explanation   provided by the GMAC for this question:

This sentence describes researchers questioning the use of diagnostic tests to identify food allergies. The sentence must be worded to indicate that the cited example of a food allergy is not milk itself, but rather an allergy to milk.
 
 Option A:  The phrase  such as milk  bizarrely indicates that milk is being cited as an example of a food allergy. This makes no sense, because milk is a food and not an allergy.

Option B:  The phrase  like milk  bizarrely indicates that milk is being cited as an example of a food allergy. This makes no sense, because milk is a food and not an allergy.

Option C:  Correct. The phrase  such as to milk  indicates that the cited example of a food allergy is an allergy to milk. Idiomatically, the preposition  to  is used correctly with the noun  allergies .

Option D:  The phrase  like that of milk  indicates that the cited example of a food allergy is "an allergy of milk." This is idiomatically incorrect; the appropriate preposition is not  of  but rather  to .

Option E:  The phrase  such as for milk  indicates that the cited example of a food allergy is "an allergy for milk." This is idiomatically incorrect; the appropriate preposition is not  for  but rather  to .
 
The correct answer is C.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

thangvietnam · Answer

in choice C, I thing the correct phrase should be "such as one to milk". 
"such as to milk" is strange to me. why dont we need "one".

after such as, a noun is needed.

what dose gmat want us to learn from this? of course, choice c is best but it is still incorrect. why we dont need a noun after such as.

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Researchers have questioned the use of costly and experimental diagnos

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