A leopard cannot run as

[ParthJ26]

MGMAT 6th Edition Sentence Correct Strategy Guide Pg 103 Problem set Question no. 6

1. A leopard cannot run as fast as a cheetah. CORRECT.

The above sentence can also be correctly written as:

2. A leopard cannot run as fast as a cheetah can. CORRECT.

3. A leopard cannot run as fast as a cheetah does. WILL THIS SENTENCE ALSO BE CORRECT? If not, please explain the reason.

Thank you for your help.

Parth Jain

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

That's a tough question. The sentence is incorrect because the comparison is unequal: we're comparing how fast a leopard can run, with how fast a cheetah does run. Further, the verb 'does' implies another verb (here, 'runs'). But there's no verb for it to refer back to. In the earlier part of the sentence the verb is 'can run', and we can't refer back to that with 'does'.

However, this is too subtle a point to spent much time on, and I haven't ever seen such a split in a real GMAT question.