As it is with traditional pharamacies, on-line drugstores

[kedieez967]

finally, consider the (much more common) construction 'Like X, Y ...
IF IT'S POSSIBLE to write THIS construction, then certainly that's a better option than 'As in the case of X' or 'As was/is/has been/had been the case with X'.

so... if a sentence starts with 'As in the case of X / As is the case with X', the following subject should NOT be 'Y'.
...because, if the following subject IS 'Y', then you can write a BETTER sentence by using 'Like X...'

hopefully you're following me here. (i'm finding this hard to explain in words.)

the two sentence convey similar meaning, and if the following subject IS 'Y', then the structure 'Like X, Y...' is more concise and more easily to be understood.

could i come up with above reason to understand your idea?
in my mother language, a proverb can describe your feeling, the proverb is that it be grasped by the mind but difficult to explain in words, ^_^

your replies are always very helpful to me. Thank you very much for you patient reply!

[RonPurewal]

i'm guessing that the proverb's message is something like 'using fewer resources / less space >>> using more resources / more space'.

you won't NEED to face this decision on the exam—every wrong answer will have at least one actual error. ('unnecessary wordiness' is not actually an error, even though you can reliably use it for elimination.)
...but it can still be helpful to know!

[mikalaisin]

Hi Ron and experts,
after reading whole thread, i still don't understand why D is incorrect.
As...so - is correct IDIOM meaning IN THE SAME WAY. Thus basically the sentence reads:
Like traditional pharmacies, on-line drug stores .... - which is proper comparison.
Can you please breakdown for me why option D is incorrect?

Also, my reasoning to eliminate other choices was:
1. A - As it is with - not para to On-line drugstores
2. B - the same Parallelism issue , As with the case not parallel to on-line drug stores
3. C - my reasoning was that AS is the case with improper comparison to Prescription
4. E - Comparison issue tradiional pharmacies compared to cornerstone

Can you please correct my reasoning if it's faulty.

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron and experts,
after reading whole thread, i still don't understand why D is incorrect.
As...so - is correct IDIOM meaning IN THE SAME WAY.

in this type construction, 'as' must be followed by a complete sentence (with a subject and a verb).

[RonPurewal]

'as + NOUN' is a real construction, but its meaning is completely different—it means 'functioning as NOUN' or 'in the role of NOUN'.
e.g.,
As a coach, Pete is a strict disciplinarian, but he lets his grandchildren get away with almost anything.
this is NOT 'in the same way'.
this sentence means that pete actually IS a coach, and that, when he is coaching, he is strict about enforcing disciplinary measures.

this interpretation is nonsense here.

[aflaamM589]

Seems ,who in non underline portion is incorrect.
It should have been customers who... ( without comma), Right Ron?
Or is the difference in given context way too subtle to be tested?

As it is with traditional pharmacies, on-line drugstores rely on prescriptions to be successful, since it is primarily prescriptions that attract the customers, who then also buy other health related items.

Thank you very much.
Have a cheerful day

[RonPurewal]

that distinction isn't tested on this exam.

[JbhB682]

A) wrong because of it (no antecedent). Can be the "impersonal" it, such as "it is sunny?

(a) "as it is with..." isn't parallel to anything. this is the main problem.
nothing "is with" online drugstores, so this choice is not sufficiently parallel.

Hi Sage - have a question on the red above

Why does "as it is with..." have to be parallel to anything in option A ?

a) As not a parallel marker
b) Also "as" is something that compares clauses --- the clauses dont have to be parallel to the best of my understanding (please correct me if i am wrong)

Example : i think this sentence is right :

As in the case of Australia, migration activities take place among lizards once they turn 2 years old in New Zealand

Made up sentence with As ... In this case, you are comparing clauses --- there is no parallelism here either is there ? Hence, is this sentence wrong ?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

For this problem, an easier way to eliminate answer A is to ask 'what is the pronoun 'it' referring to?'. We can find pretty substantial problems with all the answers except C, and that is enough to solve the problem. However, it's useful to analyze correct answer choices to see the kind of constructions that GMAT considers acceptable.

Please try to avoid making the threads really messy by quoting unnecessary material.

The word 'as', when used alone, is a marker for a comparison of clauses. We have to make sure that that comparisons are parallel, although what that means isn't always clear. A simple example is 'Stacey is studying for GMAT, as Noah is.' You can see a nice balance between the two clauses here.

With this difficult problem, GMAT pushes the boundaries of parallelism to confuse the test-taker. Let's consider what the sentence is trying to say:
Prescriptions are the cornerstone of a successful on-line drugstore, [just] as prescriptions are the cornerstone of traditional pharmacies.
Already the singular / plural difference might confuse some people, but that's okay for parallelism.
It's clunky to repeat 'prescriptions are the cornerstone of' so let's say something like 'this is the case for' instead.
Prescriptions are the cornerstone of a successful on-line drugstore, [just] as this is the case for traditional pharmacies.
We don't need the 'this' in the sentence (and GMAT tends to avoid using 'this' to refer to a previous clause).
Prescriptions are the cornerstone of a successful on-line drugstore, as is the case for traditional pharmacies.
Then, to really mess with people's expectations, let's reverse the order of the clauses.
As is the case with traditional pharmacies, prescriptions are the cornerstone of a successful on-line drugstore

In conclusion, I would say that there is parallelism here, but it's pushed to the boundaries of what GMAT considers acceptable, and is hidden away.

As for your example, I'd say it's incorrect (but not massively so). I would omit 'in the case of':
As in Australia, migration activities take place among lizards once they turn 2 years old in New Zealand.

You can see that there is a parallel structure here.