<p>I didn't really understand this either.</p>
<p>(Unlike) several decades ago, today's librarians teach students to evaluate the accuracy and objectivity of online resources in addition to helping them find particular books.
A.) Unlike
B.) Unlike them of
C.) Unlike those of
D.) Contrary to
E.) Contrary to those</p>
<p>I thought it was either C or E, but I didn't know the difference between the two.
Thank you.</p>
<p>E. lacks the crucial preposition “of”.</p>
<p>Therefore, the only viable answer is C.</p>
<p>I don’t understand this question either. Why “of” is crucial? </p>
<p>Contrary to <people> several decades ago, today’s <people> teach students … . Is this sentence wrong?</people></people></p>
<p>I’m sorry! I don’t think I read the question correctly. C is still the correct answer, but the problem is the meaning of the transition. Unlike means “not the same as” while contrary to means “opposite of”. Since the librarians several decades ago wanted to help, only in a different way, E would be incorrect.</p>
<p>Look at it this way. If you took answer “E” and put it in the sentence, you would be talking about the decades instead of the librarians. The sentence would read “Contrary to those several decades ago…” Even though WE know that “those” refers to the librarians of olden times, the way the sentence is structured would lead “those” to be talking about the decades. Therefore, we need the preposition “of” to make the first part of the sentence a prepositional phrase. </p>
<p>To put it simply, we need the preposition “of” to make the first part of the sentence a prep phrase instead of a sentence fragment. If I could show you a diagram of the phrase, this would make a whole lot more sense.</p>
<p>Also, despite the fact that “unlike” and “contrary to” TECHNICALLY have different meanings, they are considered synonyms because their meanings are similar.</p>
<p>Look it up in the thesaurus:
[Unlike</a> Synonyms, Unlike Antonyms | Thesaurus.com](<a href=“UNLIKE]UNLIKE Synonyms & Antonyms | Thesaurus.com”>UNLIKE Synonyms: 39 Synonyms & Antonyms for UNLIKE | Thesaurus.com)</p>
<p>Thank you! Now I understand :)</p>