Samuel Sewall viewed marriage, as other seventeenth-century colonists, like a property arrangement rather than an emotional bond based on romantic love.

(A) Samuel Sewall viewed marriage, as other seventeenth-century colonists, like a property arrangement rather than

(B) As did other seventeenth-century colonists, Samuel Sewall viewed marriage to be a property arrangement rather than viewing it as

(C) Samuel Sewall viewed marriage to be a property arrangement, like other seventeenth-century colonists, rather than viewing it as

(D) Marriage to Samuel Sewall, like other seventeenth-century colonists, was viewed as a property arrangement rather than

(E) Samuel Sewall, like other seventeenth-century colonists, viewed marriage as a property arrangement rather than

Choice (E) is the correct answer.

If Choice(B) looks like , "As did other seventeenth-century colonists, Samuel Sewall viewed marriage as a property arrangement rather than" , can I mark the choice as contender ?

And also, if Choice(A) can be rewriten as "Samuel Sewall viewed marriage, as did other seventeenth-century colonists, like / as a property arrangement rather than" , can I mark the choice as contender ?

Please suggest. Thanks !!

My BAD.I forgot to enter my username.So, it is a deplicate post.

In general, you can write the same sentence correctly using either like or as - it just depends on how you structure the rest of that particular sentence. The reason "like" is right in this sentence is because it's the only option that uses either "like" or "as" in a grammatically-correct construction.

So if B said "As did other seventeenth-century colonists, Samuel Sewall viewed marriage as a property arrangement rather than" that would be fine, too.

The way you re-worded A, however, is not quite as good:
"Samuel Sewall viewed marriage, as did other seventeenth-century colonists, like / as a property arrangement rather than"
First, it would have to say "as a property arrangement," not "like a property arrangement." That's just an idiom - you view something as something else. You don't view something like something else. The placement of the clause "as did other seventeenth-century colonists" is just a little awkward in this one, because it splits the "viewed marriage as a property arrangement" statement. The way you re-worded B, above, is better.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Thank you for your explanation !! I was trying to tweak answer choices to know other combinations if possible. Most of the time I go wrong. But this process helps me to find other alternatives.