Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has

[abhasjha]

Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its store, it expands into a red giant, eventually ejecting its outer envelope of gases to become a white dwarf.

A. Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its store, it expands into a red giant, eventually ejecting

B. Like any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, then it expands into a red giant and eventually ejects

C. As in the case of any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, it will expand into a red giant, and eventually ejecting

D. As any star of similar mass would, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted it will expand into a red giant and will eventually eject

E. As would be the case with any star of similar mass, once the Sun exhausts the hydrogen in its core, it will expand into a red giant and eventually eject

source - gprep

[nayak.purnendu]

Please read the embedded comments.

Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its store, it expands into a red giant, eventually ejecting its outer envelope of gases to become a white dwarf.

A. Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its store, it expands into a red giant, eventually ejecting

Incorrect. Like requires comparison. It would be correct to say:
Like any star of similar mass, (once the Sun -the subject- has ..., it expands...
However, "would do" bring the action into picture and foils the comparison.


B. Like any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, then it expands into a red giant and eventually ejects
We have a possessive noun Sun's and the subject becomes "core". It cannot refer back to Sun.
Illogical comparison

C. As in the case of any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, it will expand into a red giant, and eventually ejecting

D. As any star of similar mass would, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, it will expand into a red giant and will eventually eject

E. As would be the case with any star of similar mass, once the Sun exhausts the hydrogen in its core, it will expand into a red giant and eventually eject
Correct comparison. Maintains parallelism (it will expand and ...eject)
Correct Answer

[RonPurewal]

please ask a question about this problem; don't just post an entire problem.

between what answers were you undecided? which choices couldn't you eliminate? what constructions were you unsure about?
etc.

thanks.

[zarak_khan]

Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its store, it expands into a red giant, eventually ejecting its outer envelope of gases to become a white dwarf.

A. Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its store, it expands into a red giant, eventually ejecting

i - Will this choice be correct is we remove "would do"?
ii- Can we eliminate this choice simply because it uses "like"?


B. Like any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, then it expands into a red giant and eventually ejects

i - Is this choice incorrect because "Like any star of similar mass" modifies hydrogen instead of the the Sun?
ii- Does this choice incorrectly combine two depedent clauses?


C. As in the case of any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, it will expand into a red giant, and eventually ejecting

i - Would this sentence be correct it used "eject" instead of "ejecting"?
ii - Is this choice incorrect because "As in the case of any star" incorrectly modifies modifies hydrogen instead of the Sun?

D. As any star of similar mass would, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted it will expand into a red giant and will eventually eject

i - Is this choice incorrect because "As in the case of any star" incorrectly modifies modifies hydrogen instead of the Sun?

E. As would be the case with any star of similar mass, once the Sun exhausts the hydrogen in its core, it will expand into a red giant and eventually eject

i - Does this sentence mean the Sun's core will expand into a red giant?

[RonPurewal]

Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its store, it expands into a red giant, eventually ejecting its outer envelope of gases to become a white dwarf.

A. Like any star of similar mass would do, once the Sun has exhausted the hydrogen in its store, it expands into a red giant, eventually ejecting

i - Will this choice be correct is we remove "would do"?
ii- Can we eliminate this choice simply because it uses "like"?

in answering this question, i will just posit the rule for using an initial "Like X, ..." modifier.

when you use the initial modifier "like X, ...",
1 * a comparison is automatically made with the SUBJECT that follows the modifier
2 * "X" must be a NOUN (or NOUN + MODIFIERS).
in particular, "X" cannot be a clause or prepositional phrase.

this particular example fails both of these criteria.
#1: "the sun" should be placed in the current location of "once..."
#2: this option tries to follow "like" with a clause (note the tensed verb "would do")

B. Like any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, then it expands into a red giant and eventually ejects

i - Is this choice incorrect because "Like any star of similar mass" modifies hydrogen instead of the the Sun?
ii- Does this choice incorrectly combine two depedent clauses?

(i) yes. see #1 above.

(ii) not sure what you are asking here, but i will tell you that you cannot have "once X, then Y". that's just not idiomatic.

C. As in the case of any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, it will expand into a red giant, and eventually ejecting

i - Would this sentence be correct it used "eject" instead of "ejecting"?
ii - Is this choice incorrect because "As in the case of any star" incorrectly modifies modifies hydrogen instead of the Sun?

(i) not really. it would almost be correct, but you'd have one big problem -- you would have a list of exactly 2 actions (expand into a red giant and eventually eject...) in which there is a comma between the 2 actions.
this is not allowed -- there should be no comma in a list of two things ("X and Y").

(ii) nope. prepositional phrases are marvelously flexible in what they can modify, and "in the case" is one of the most marvelously flexible of all prepositional phrases. in fact, the whole existence of "the case of..." is based on the fact that those words can refer to pretty much anything in a sentence (while most other modifiers are subject to some pretty severe restrictions).

D. As any star of similar mass would, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted it will expand into a red giant and will eventually eject

i - Is this choice incorrect because "As in the case of any star" incorrectly modifies modifies hydrogen instead of the Sun?

hmm?

those words aren't in this option -- i think you wrote a response to the wrong answer choice here.

E. As would be the case with any star of similar mass, once the Sun exhausts the hydrogen in its core, it will expand into a red giant and eventually eject

i - Does this sentence mean the Sun's core will expand into a red giant?

nope. "it" refers to the sun.

this pronoun is technically ambiguous, but there are lots and lots and lots of examples of official problems whose correct answers contain technically ambiguous pronouns.

in general, in such situations, the pronoun is generally taken to stand for the noun to which it is GRAMMATICALLY PARALLEL. in this case, that's "the sun", since "the sun" and "it" are both SUBJECTS of their respective clauses.

[sandeep.19+man]

Isnt C and D also wrong because they say

C. As in the case of any star of similar mass, ......Sun's....
D. As any star of similar mass would, ..... Sun's....

Here, doesn't the possessive "Sun's" makes the comparison incorrect.

Wouldn't :
As in the case of any star of similar mass, once the Sun exhausts the hydrogen in its core....
be correct?

Thank you

[mschwrtz]

C. As in the case of any star of similar mass, ......Sun's....
D. As any star of similar mass would, ..... Sun's....

Here, doesn't the possessive "Sun's" makes the comparison incorrect.

FOR C: Terrible as C sounds, that's not quite the problem. See Ron's note above about the flexibility of this expression.

FOR D: Yes, sort of. Comparison is a species of parallelism, as you imply, and so this answer ought to compare "any star" to the "the Sun." The problem with D though is not only "the Sun's" is possessive, but also that the noun grammatically parallel to "any star" is "the hydrogen," which is not logically comparable.

[vjsharma25]

Isn't option "C" and "D" incorrect because "it" in both the choices refers to the "the hydrogen" ?
in option "D" it seems almost sure but in option "C" I am a bit confused,because if i remove the part between the commas,"it" refers correctly to star.Does it?

C. As in the case of any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, it will expand into a red giant, and eventually ejecting

[RonPurewal]

Isn't option "C" and "D" incorrect because "it" in both the choices refers to the "the hydrogen" ?
in option "D" it seems almost sure but in option "C" I am a bit confused,because if i remove the part between the commas,"it" refers correctly to star.Does it?

C. As in the case of any star of similar mass, once the hydrogen in the Sun’s core is exhausted, it will expand into a red giant, and eventually ejecting

you are correct that there's a problem with the pronoun "it" in those choices.

in these cases, there is not much point in trying to identify an antecedent for that pronoun; from the context of the sentence, it's clear that "it" is intended to refer to "the sun". therefore, you just have to check the sentence for the existence of "the sun" as a noun.

these two choices contained the possessive "the sun's". like all other possessives, this is an adjective, not a noun; therefore, the pronoun is stranded.

[vjsharma25]

Thanks for the confirmation Ron.

[jnelson0612]

Good. :-)

[vidhya.rao]

Is the usage of "WOULD" in the choice D/E correct?

Would = some condition in the past that was expected occur but did not occur.

I eliminated D & E solely based on the usage of "WOULD".

any suggestion?

[tim]

what's wrong with the use of "would"? you haven't given any reason to reject answers with "would"..

[vidhya.rao]

Tim,

I assume usage of "WOULD" is only warranted in conditional sentences. Hence , I didnt select option (D) and (E).

Thanks

[tim]

"conditional" implies an "if...then" construction. i prefer to say that "would" occurs in hypothetical situations. both D and E exhibit a hypothetical..