More than thirty years ago Dr. Barbara McClintock, the Nobel Prize winner, reported that genes can "jump," as pearls moving mysteriously from one necklace to another.

(A) as pearls moving mysteriously from one necklace to another

(B) like pearls moving mysteriously from one necklace to another

(C) as pearls do that move mysteriously from one necklace to others

(D) like pearls do that move mysteriously from one necklace to others

(E) as do pearls that move mysteriously from one necklace to some other one

In the above sentence, "genes can "jump"" - I assume the statement a action. So, why the phrase "like pearls moving" is compared to a clause "genes can jump".
I was looking for a sentence starting with , "as do pearls" and choice(E) is mapped to that. But, the choice is INCORRECT.

As per OG explanation:

Choices C, D, and E are all faulty because the verb do suggests that the migrating pearls are presented as a real phenomenon, not as a figurative illustration. in E, the phrase some other one, substituted for another, is awkward and wordy.

I couldn't manage to get the concept of "real phenomenon" and "figurative illustration" in lined with verb "do" ? Can you please elaborate on this topic ? Thanks.

Their explanation is not the clearest. First, know that you can write the same sentence using either "like" or "as" as long as the rest of it conforms correctly to the rules for using either "like" or "as." So I can compare "genes" to "pearls" or I can compare "genes jumping" to "pearls jumping." Just depends how I choose to construct the sentence.

By introducing the example of the pearls, is the sentence trying to say that the pearls have somehow really actually rearranged themselves without any human intervention? Or is the sentence trying to say that the "jumping genes" phenomenon is the same thing as IF the pearls could somehow mysteriously move around without anyone touching the necklaces? It wouldn't make sense to say that the pearls really are moving around on their own.

As a result, if we use "as do pearls" (as answer E says), we are saying that the pearls really are moving around without human intervention. It's not a hypothetical - we're saying that there are some pearls that are actually capable of moving around on their own. This doesn't make sense, though. The "like pearls moving," in contrast, means IF they could move around without human intervention, it would be similar to the genes jumping around. The pearls aren't really moving around by themselves - this is just what it would be like if they could.

Notice also that E ends in "some other one" which is not as concise as "another" in choice B. Also, there's nothing grammatically wrong with the "like" setup in choice B - there, we're comparing genes to pearls, which are both nouns, and the phrase after "pearls" in B is just that - a phrase, not a clause. (Moving, in this case, is not a verb. The only time you will see an -ing word that functions as a verb in a sentence is if that -ing word is immediately preceded by some form of the verb "to be." If some form of the verb "to be" is not right before that -ing word, then that -ing word is not functioning as a verb. Instead, it is functioning as a noun, adjective, or adverb, depending on the sentence.)

Thank you Stacey.