The dialogues in the books of the famous Mormon author Orson Scott Car

Hi gandalfthegreat,
Although I believe that my own explanation above and the GmatClubs' official explanation pretty much sums up all that is here to learn, I will try to shed more light on this for you.

If you strip the sentence to its bones, the meaning that the sentence wants to impart is:

The dialogues in the books of Mr. Scott have a deep philosophical implication.

The in between part, "like those in his most famous book “Ender’s game”, is an "inessential modifier" (set off by a pair of commas) placed after the opening "noun phrase" to add more information about the "noun phrase" it touches. Whether this inessential modifier should contain "like/such as" depends on the meaning author wants to impart and the logic. You should ask yourself, "Does the author want to present a comparison? Or does the author want to show an example?"
In the given sentence, from what I can gather, the author intends to show the examples of the "dialogues", from Mr. Scott's books, that have deep implication, so the correct phrase should be, "such as those in his most famous book “Ender’s game”, here "those" refers to the dialogues in "Ender's game" that are presented as examples of the dialogues that have deep implication. So, "like" in (A) is incorrect because it is used to show a comparison and not to state examples. Thus, even if "like" is followed by a noun in (A), that is not the intended meaning or the purpose of that phrase in the sentence.

This question is a good example of why one should pay attention to the meaning imparted by two "grammatically correct" answer choices. Once, you have identified the meaning difference, the logic will help you in choosing one over other. This is why "sentence correction" is not just the test of one's grammar skills but also of logic and comprehension.

Hope it helps.

GMAT Club Tests' Official Explanation

To cite examples “such as” is used. The words “like” and “as” are used to depict similarity. Here examples are cited, hence “such as” is the correct usage.

A. “Like” is used to depict similarity. This option indicates that dialogues similar to those in the book “Ender’s game” (not necessarily the dialogues in the book itself), have a deep philosophical meaning.

B. This option indicates that dialogues similar to those in the book “Ender’s game” (not necessarily the dialogues in the book itself), have a deep philosophical meaning.

C. The singular pronoun “that” wrongly refers to the plural antecedent “dialogues”.
Note: the pronoun “that” can be used to refer to a plural antecedent, when it is used as a relative pronoun in a relative clause modifier (example: Dogs that bark do not bite). However in option C “those” is used to create a new copy of the word “dialogues”, and in such an application using “that” is wrong.

D. Correct. “Such as” is correctly used to cite examples. The plural pronoun “those” refers to the plural noun “dialogues”.

E. “As” is wrongly used with a noun / pronoun - “as” is generally used with a clause. Moreover “as” is used to express similarity - here examples are required to be cited, hence ”as” is wrong.

Thank you for pointing out - I do indeed remember that I noticed in some official stuff some years ago that "like" has been used to introduce examples (may not be the one in your post). Nonetheless I also remember taking a note at that time that the introduction of an example using "such as" must be used when the example itself is definitely included in the group for which the example is given: this criterion, as I interpreted, makes "such as" not interchangable with "like".

Hence, for the question above, the "dialogues in his most famous book Ender's Game" is definitely included in "The dialogues in the books of the famous Mormon author Orson Scott Card"; therefore "such as" is better than "like" in this case.

What is your opinion on this perspective?

In the example in your post "renting temporary office space or using answering services" may or may not be included in the "resourceful ways".

Hello gandalfthegreat,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option A is incorrect because this sentence is not actually drawing a comparison, rather it is providing examples.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team.

can anyone here verify my reasoning. D is correct because it shows examples.

This is a bit iffy Saarthak. The answer choices A and D seem to be completely relying on this purported difference between like and such as.

GMAT actually acknowledges that like can be used to provide examples as well.

EducationAisle Can you provide an OG example to prove this? Because "to not use "like" for stating "examples"" has been an "unbroken rule" so far.

Here goes:

Especially in the early years, new entrepreneurs may need to find resourceful ways, like renting temporary office space or using answering services, to make their companies seem large and more firmly established that they may actually be.

The silver lining is that "like" is in the non-underlined portion. For that reason, I mentioned in my previous post that I have not come across any official question where like vs such as is the only difference between two options.

Incidentally, following is the explanation for #65 of Verbal Review 2nd Edition: "While there has been some disputes over the use of like to mean "for example," this is an acceptable use."

I just had a huge- "What!!!" moment.

i took 10 seconds ....such as over like

You might be right.

I however, don't have an opinion on this, since there are not enough data points (aka official examples) that could help me arrive at a conclusion either way. As you would agree, an unofficial example (such as the one in this thread) can hardly help us form an opinion.

Hence, the official explanation (that use of like to mean "for example" is an acceptable use) is pretty much all that we have, to go by. I do understand however that official explanations sometimes provide broad directions, than specific insights.

Hence, let's see what other experts opine.

PyjamaScientist, I chose A.

"Like" is a preposition, which is used to properly compare noun/pronoun, comes before noun/pronoun ("those") here.

How is option A wrong?

Yes, it did! PyjamaScientist, Thank you for explaining it with patience

Can someone please explain why this case is not a comparison and instead is an example?

Dialogues in one book, like dialogues in other book, is nice. seems like comparison to me.

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