Some questions about parallelism and comparasion

[JianYongZ719]

I want to ask some general questions. Thank you for your answer.
1. How can we use the phrase " as with". This idiom appears in OG several times but I still don't know how to use it. Up to now, I only know that "as with" must be at the beginning of the sentence and feel that maybe its use is similar to that of "like". Can you give me some examples to explain it?

2. For example, " researchers use some methods to measure seismic waves that create in the earth's crust and ricochet around its interior". Originally, the above sentence comes from OG16 but I rephrase it. My questions is that, without "that" in front of the verb "ricochet", will "ricochet" be possible to be parallel with "use" in main clause? If the answer is not, whether it means that in that case, we can always omit "that" and still avoid ambiguity?

3. Can I use comparative without having a "than" in the GMAT exam? For example, "My success was overshadowed by that of my friends, but others still believed that I was a better poet". Is the above sentence correct? (The above sentence is also rephrased from a OG sentence.)

Really thank you for your help!

[RonPurewal]

I want to ask some general questions. Thank you for your answer.
1. How can we use the phrase " as with". This idiom appears in OG several times but I still don't know how to use it. Up to now, I only know that "as with" must be at the beginning of the sentence and feel that maybe its use is similar to that of "like". Can you give me some examples to explain it?

if they give you 'as with X' it will almost definitely be incorrect.

this is a 'spoken language trap'—a thing that native english speakers SAY all the time, but that doesn't work in formal text.

basically, the idea is that this construction doesn't work unless you LITERALLY MEAN 'with'.
e.g.,
As with Stephanie, I have a difficult time discussing politics with Hannah.
this is a correct sentence. hopefully it is self-explanatory.

[RonPurewal]

2. For example, " researchers use some methods to measure seismic waves that create in the earth's crust and ricochet around its interior". Originally, the above sentence comes from OG16 but I rephrase it. My questions is that, without "that" in front of the verb "ricochet", will "ricochet" be possible to be parallel with "use" in main clause? If the answer is not, whether it means that in that case, we can always omit "that" and still avoid ambiguity?

this is a CORRECT SENTENCE:
Ray writes poems about men who fought for their country and died in battle.
you do NOT need a second 'who'. (in fact, a second 'who' would distort the meaning.**)

this should answer your question.

also, more generally, 'ambiguous parallelism' isn't a thing on this test.
your consideration of parallelism should be limited to 'parallel or nonparallel?', and/or 'which of these two/three/four/five choices has the better/best parallelism?'... and that's it.
don't make this harder than it actually is!

[RonPurewal]

**footnote:
–––YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO KNOW THIS FOR THE EXAM–––

when you write
people who do x and do y
or
things that do x and do y,
normally you are implying the existence of people/things THAT DO BOTH 'x' and 'y'.

e.g., men who drink hard and fight a lot are a bunch of guys EACH OF WHOM DOES BOTH of these things.

when you write
people who do x and who do y
or
things that do x and that do y,
then you're normally allowing for the possibility of SEPARATE people/things.

e.g., California is the home of people who dream of new inventions and who turn those dreams into reality.
--> this sentence implies, or at least allows as a possibility, the notion that the people who 'turn the dreams into reality' ARE NOT the same people who had the dreams in the first place.

EXCEPTIONS occur if 'do x' and do y' are very LONG phrases.
in that case, even if the intended meaning is 'the same people/things', it might be necessary to include the second 'who'/'that' to make the sentence readable.

–––YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO KNOW THIS FOR THE EXAM–––

[RonPurewal]

3. Can I use comparative without having a "than" in the GMAT exam? For example, "My success was overshadowed by that of my friends, but others still believed that I was a better poet". Is the above sentence correct? (The above sentence is also rephrased from a OG sentence.)

Really thank you for your help!

DO NOT question the correct answers!

here's a handy FAQ:

Q: Is the correct answer correct?
A: Yes.

Q: Is the correct answer wrong?
A: No.

Q: I disagree with the correct answer. Who's wrong, me or GMAC?
A: You.

Q: I wrote this other version. Is it better than the correct answer?
A: No.