Modifiers in the copy?

[yo4561]

Happy Saturday!

I have a question about whether you include noun modifiers in the "copy" placeholders. For example, let's say I have this sentence (I made up):

Rustic Indian food, like that of other cultures, is home-made and delicious.

Am I only filling in "the food" for "that"? I know that it would be incorrect to say "Rustic Indian food, like the Rustic Indian food of other cultures..."? So, do you always just take the plain noun (in other words, how do you know whether or not to include modifiers in the copy?)

[esledge]

First, please accept our apologies for the late response. A tech glitch hid this folder from all logged-in Manhattan Prep staff for the first quarter of the year, and I’m still digging through the backlog.

Hi yo, I started to write an answer about this that said, "the copy pronoun only refers to the noun," reasoning that pronouns only replace nouns, not whole phrases. But your example is good for showing why that might not be universally true.

As I thought about how we'd have to fix the example, this is what I came up with:

Correct: The rustic food of India, like that of other cultures, is home-made and delicious.

In this version, notice:
--Whether we replace "that" with "rustic food" or just "food," the comparison makes sense. (Arguably it makes better sense with "rustic" included.) The problem in the original was the clashing idea of "Indian food... of other cultures."
--There's better parallelism by using "of" in both parts: (rustic) food of (a culture/region) = (rustic) food of (other cultures)

So the take-away rule probably should be that "that" and "those" can refer back to both a noun and its modifiers, so if that makes the second half of the comparison illogical, see whether another choice avoids that possibility (probably by shuffling words and/or improving parallelism overall, as I did).

This feels a bit more subtle than the typical GMAT comparison issue, though, if that helps put things in context.

[yo4561]

It is okay! Thank you so much Emily!

[esledge]

You're welcome!