Even as they never forgave the Crusaders who overran their homeland

Question

Even as they never forgave  the Crusaders who overran their homeland, the Syrians have never absolved the French for taking territory from them.

(A) Even as they never forgave

(B) While they never forgave

(C) Just like they never forgave

(D) Similarly to not forgiving

(E) In spite of their never forgiving

daagh · Accepted Answer

Although as per semantics, A and C may be the same, structurally they are different. ‘ As ’ is a conjunction while ‘ like ’ is a preposition. ‘ Like ’ can never be followed by anything other than a noun or noun phrase, to be grammatically correct. A is the only choice that can be considered right for bringing out the comparison explicitly and for using the conjunction ‘ as ’ for comparing two clauses.

iamcste · Answer

the Syrians have  never absolved  the French for taking territory from them...............the Crusaders who overran their homeland

D and E out of qtn

A, B and C have "they never forgave" so put them in the sentence

the Syrians have  never absolved  the French for taking territory from them...............as they  never forgave  the Crusaders who overran their homeland

Comparison of actions...Use "as"

hence not C

GMAT TIGER · Answer

A. C is wrong because "just like" is never correct to compare the clauses...

ajit257 · Answer

hi daagh,
 correct me if i am wrong in C 'like' is followed by a pronoun and just like is also idiomatic. Please advise.

daagh · Answer

Ajit:You are just looking at the word that is next to ‘like’. If the clause just stops with ‘they’ alone, we can say ‘like’ is followed by a pronoun. But “like they never forgave” is a full fledged subordinate clause; In order to say that like is followed by a noun or noun phrase, the phrase should be as : Like they, like them, like their not forgiving, etc.,

In such cases, the main clause also will take corresponding amendments, wherever required.

In such cases, the main clause also will take corresponding amendments, wherever required.

thesfactor · Answer

Examples:
Just like romance, action is a genre
Just like swimming, fencing was his passion

jagdeepsingh1983 · Answer

Ans is A

traditionally like is a preposition and as is a conjunction
When to Use Like, When to Use As

The proper way to differentiate between like and as is to use like when no verb follows (2). For example, Squiggly throws like a raccoon or It acted just like my computer. Notice that when I use like, the words that come after are generally simple. A raccoon and my computer are the objects of the preposition.

If the clause that comes next includes a verb, then you should use as. For example, Squiggly throws as if he were a raccoon or It acted just as I would expect my computer to behave. Notice that when I use as, the words that come after tend to be more complex.

You generally hear like used in everyday speech, so that helps me remember that like is the simpler word—or at least it is followed by simpler words. As sounds stuffier and is followed by a more complex clause that contains a verb.

Prashantsri · Answer

D and E are obviously out, E carries the exact opposite meaning and D is too awkward. C is out because it is using ‘like’ to compare non-nouns. B also changes the meaning, it draws a contrast between the Syrians treatment of the Crusaders and the French, where there is none. The answer is A.

ssanskaar · Answer

VeritasKarishma   GMATNinja

Can anyone please explain me  in detail  why is option B wrong?

KarishmaB · Answer

"while" shows contrast, the way "although" does. 
While I don't like ..., I do like ...

Here, we have no contrast to show.
If they were forgiving some and not forgiving others, we could have used while. 
Hence (B) is not correct.

CEdward · Answer

"If they were forgiving some and not forgiving others, we could have used while. " But isn't this exactly what the Syrians were doing? They never forgave the Crusaders, but they absolved the French?

What's wrong with E? Why not use "In spite of" or "Despite"?

Dvaishnav · Answer

What is the difference between 'Even as' and 'as'? I arrived at A by process of elimination. However, I feel that 'Even As' is not conveying proper comparison. I thought it should be 'As they never forgave...'. Isn't 'Even as' show contrast? In a sentence construction 'Even as X, Y', I would expect X and Y to contrast with each other.

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Even as they never forgave the Crusaders who overran their homeland

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Even as they never forgave the Crusaders who overran their homeland

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