Originally published in 1950, Some Tame Gazelle was Barbara

[hitesh.aggarwal]

Is it correct -

A runs like B ?? (A = novel, B = apprentice work)

OR

A runs as B does

[RonPurewal]

Is it correct -

A runs like B ?? (A = novel, B = apprentice work)

OR

A runs as B does

neither of these would be correct if "runs" is the verb. do you mean "reads"?

[aayush333]

as far as i've seen - and definitely in the view of the gmat, especially in light of this probelm - "unlike X" is an ADJECTIVE phrase, and can therefore only modify NOUNS.
choice (e) is attempting to use "unlike X" as an ADVERB phrase, modifying "reads". that doesn't fly.

weirdly enough, "like an apprentice work" seems to be perfectly acceptable as an adverb phrase, because it modifies the verb "read" in the correct answer.

OPTION (A)
Originally published in 1950, Some Tame Gazelle was Barbara Pym’s first novel, but it (Barbara Pym’s first novel) does not read like an apprentice work.

over here is 'read' acting as a noun or verb??
for this option to be correct 'read' here should be a noun, else it would mean that 'the novel itself is performing the act of reading or not reading'
'....novel does not read like an apprentice work' (if read is a verb here, it personifies both novel and apprentice work)

Further to my understanding, 'does read' or 'reads' as noun would mean ' the work in the novel' which then would rightly be compared to 'an apprentice work'

I marked A because :

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/read

read
noun. Informal
Something that is read: "The book is a page-turner as well as a very satisfying read" (Frank Conroy).

"read" is used as a noun in A and the noun is correctly compared to "apprentice work" in A alone.

In E, reads becomes verb and you cannot compare verb to noun

in my opinion, 'does read' in (A) has same effect as 'Reads' in (E). I dont see why 'read' in "does not read'' (A) can be used as noun and 'reads' in (E) cannot be.

OPTION (E)
Originally published in 1950, Some Tame Gazelle was Barbara Pym’s first novel, but it (Barbara Pym’s first novel) reads unlike an apprentice work.

same issue as above in option (A)
only ''does not read like'' in (A) has been replaced by "reads unlike" in (E).

Since Option (E) is concise, it should be the prefered choice.

Please clarify

[RonPurewal]

the person who is saying that "read" is a noun is wrong.

over here is 'read' acting as a noun or verb??
for this option to be correct 'read' here should be a noun, else it would mean that 'the novel itself is performing the act of reading or not reading'

not true -- the word "read" works a lot like the word "look". each of these verbs can refer to either (a) a person's action or (b) the way that an object appears to an observer. for instance,
i looked at john
john looked sad and tired
both of these sentences are correct.
the verb "read" behaves similarly. you can say "i want to read this book" (which works like the first illustration of "look"), but you can also send "this book does not read like an apprentice work" (which works like the second one).

i hope that clears up the issue.

[pawanugt]

as far as i've seen - and definitely in the view of the gmat, especially in light of this probelm - "unlike X" is an ADJECTIVE phrase, and can therefore only modify NOUNS.
choice (e) is attempting to use "unlike X" as an ADVERB phrase, modifying "reads". that doesn't fly.

weirdly enough, "like an apprentice work" seems to be perfectly acceptable as an adverb phrase, because it modifies the verb "read" in the correct answer.

Hi Ron,

Request you to elaborate on the usage of "Unlike" in the above mentioned context.

Unlike X, Y is doing something. Here "Unlike" is modifying a noun.

Similarly.. In the example : Unlike the apprentice work, novel A doesn't read too bad.

I find both the above examples correct. Would be glad if you could give examples and explain the usage of "Unlike".

Thanks in Advance.

Regards
Pawan

[jlucero]

Hi Ron,

Request you to elaborate on the usage of "Unlike" in the above mentioned context.

Unlike X, Y is doing something. Here "Unlike" is modifying a noun.

Similarly.. In the example : Unlike the apprentice work, novel A doesn't read too bad.

I find both the above examples correct. Would be glad if you could give examples and explain the usage of "Unlike".

Thanks in Advance.

Regards
Pawan

Both examples are correct, but your second example shows why (E) is incorrect:

The book reads unlike an apprentice work.

If the modifier is used to compare an apprentice work to this book, then:

Unlike an apprentice work, the book reads.

We're not saying that one book reads and the other doesn't. We are comparing how the book does not read "similar to" an apprentice work.

[thanghnvn]

as far as i've seen - and definitely in the view of the gmat, especially in light of this probelm - "unlike X" is an ADJECTIVE phrase, and can therefore only modify NOUNS.
choice (e) is attempting to use "unlike X" as an ADVERB phrase, modifying "reads". that doesn't fly.

weirdly enough, "like an apprentice work" seems to be perfectly acceptable as an adverb phrase, because it modifies the verb "read" in the correct answer.

Ron, pls explain more.
why "unlike" is adjective phrase. "unlike" is a preposition also. this is explained in dictionaries.

why do you, in the light of this problem, infer that gmat consider "unlike" adjective phrase.

why dont you infer, in the light of this problem, that gmat consider "do unlike " is unidiomatic.

how we can infer from gmat oa choice?

[RonPurewal]

There's not much more to explain. Basically, "like" can work that way, "unlike" can't, and that's that.

For instance,
You (verb) unlike your brother
is not a thing. Instead, you'd want
You don't (verb) like your brother.

[aditya8062]

Ron i have a question regarding option C in this question

C says: does not seem to read as an apprentice work would

in one of your post, I had read that * if you have than/as + subject + HELPING VERB as the second half of a comparison, then you must have the SAME helping verb (perhaps in a different tense) in the first half of the comparison.

you had given following example: james can negotiate with salespeople more effectively than stephanie can.
example 2 : i can run much faster than i could before my most recent knee operation. (note that "could" is the past tense of "can", so these are the same helping verb.)

my question is can i eliminate C on this basis? because after "as" i have "would" but i do not have any "helping verb" in the construction prior to "AS"

[RonPurewal]

If you could link to where I wrote that, that'd be helpful. I'd bet I wrote that 5+ years ago.

It's context-based. The older official problems mostly used exactly the same helping verb, hence the previous (simpler) advice. But, if the context is appropriate, you can have any combination of helping verbs.
E.g., I don't eat as much food as I can. (... because, if I did, I'd weigh a thousand pounds)

[aditya8062]

hi Ron thanks for your reply
yes you wrote it on the following link (july 30, 2010) : http://www.beatthegmat.com/soar-t62473-15.html

can u please edit that post and tell me as what is more exact version of that post
Thanks

[RonPurewal]

OK, thanks. Yeah, 4+ years old. I edited it.

NB: The GMAC writers almost certainly read these forums, and certain posts have probably spurred corrective action over the years. For instance, there are now several problems whose correct answers contain "being", and there are lots of problems whose correct answers have passive verbs. Neither of these things was true around the days of OG10, so I would bet money that GMAC addressed these issues because people were reading "Don't use being" and "Don't use passive" on forums—and actually deriving an advantage therefrom.

If there are newer problems with more sophisticated/context-based interaction between verb tenses, it's not impossible that the quoted post (and probably others) served as the original impetus for their creation.