A question about "like", comparison

[cmdq]

Hi,
I'm confused with this sentence, is it correct?
Although fruit can no longer grow once it is picked, it continues for some time to respire, taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide, just like the breathing of human beings.

So, in this sentence, the word "breathing" is compared with "respire" or is compared with "fruit"? in other words, the structure:...., like X. X is compared with the subject of the previous sentence or the noun that near it?

Thanks in advance!

[RonPurewal]

Please read the forum rules -- we need the original source of everything that's posted here.

If this is from a practice problem, we also need the original problem and all of the answer choices.

Thanks.