Hi there! Welcome!During an ice age, the building of ice at the poles and the drop in water levels speed up the earth's rotation, like a figure skater who increases speed while spinning with her arms drawn in.
A: like a figure skater who increases speed while spinning with her arms drawn in
B: just as a spinning figure skater increases speed by drawing in her arms
First off, it's always more helpful to other visitors if you can post all the answer choices, even though many people will be stuck between the same two that you chose.
In class here at TestMagic, I encounter such questions routinely; in fact, questions of this type are the most commonly missed questions, and believe it or not, there's a rather simple explanation for why one is wrong and another is right.
Let me ask you a question--when you think about this question, and you think about what's being compared, do you think that it's simply two nouns, or do you think that it's two similar nouns doing similar actions? If it's the latter, we must go with "as," the subordinating conjunction, i.e, the only one that can introduce a sentence.
In this question, the answer to my question seems logical, but in the next it will be more difficult to answer. So, in anticipation of the next question, let me ask you one more thing--in this SC are we comparing simply two nouns or are we comparing two nouns, each with its own verb?
I think in this particular SC it seems *fairly* clear that we are comparing two nouns with two actions, so we should use "as."
So let's look at the next one, which I believe will be a tad more difficult...
I want you to think about this sentence. What would you say naturally?More than thirty years ago Dr. Barb, the Noble Prize winner reported that genes can jump, as perals do that move from one necklace to another.
A: as perals do that move from one necklace to another
B: like pearls from one necklace to another
or
Genes can jump like pearls.
Would you agree that the latter sentence sounds a bit stilted?
- Genes can jump as pearls do.
Try these sentences:
or
She walks like duck.
You see where I'm headed?
- She walks like a duck does.
Just in case, let's try one more:
or
Why are you acting like a fool??
Okay, you might have gotten the point by now, but let's compare sentences.
- Why are you acting as a fool does??
More than thirty years ago Dr. Barbara McClintock, the Nobel Prize winner, reported that genes can “jump” as pearls moving mysteriously from one necklace to another.
You must agree that
as pearls moving.
sounds terrible!!
Let's try again:
More than thirty years ago Dr. Barbara McClintock, the Nobel Prize winner, reported that genes can “jump” as pearls move mysteriously from one necklace to another.
Aaarrgghhh!!! This one's bad because "as" has another meaning here--at the same time. It sounds like the genes are jumping at the same time that the pearls are jumping.
Let's try again...
More than thirty years ago Dr. Barbara McClintock, the Nobel Prize winner, reported that genes can “jump” as pearls do that move from one necklace to another.
This answer, with all due respect, is completely ungrammatical:
"as pearls do" is actually a complete sentence; it should NOT be followed by anything else, don't you agree? Think about it--we could end the sentence there, couldn't we? Yes, we could. So that means we cannot add "that move from one necklace to another" (a noun clause) after it. We could add an adjective/adjective clause, an adverb/adverb clause, but we canNOT add a noun/noun clause.
Whew!!!
Actually, there is so much grammar here that I could explain... If you have any specific questions, I can answer them.