Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth

[kris]

Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.

A.Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.
B.Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.
C.Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.
D.Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.
E.Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to sail west to see if he could reach India.
Source:MGMAT


i could narrow down the choice to C and D. The given explanation for eliminating C is that, for comparing verbs "rather than" is the preferable. Then where can we use "Instead of ". Please look into following sentences. In these sentences, is "instead of" used to compare verbs?

Instead of charging for each shrink-wrapped box, firms can sell programs as a service, collecting monthly payments, or giving them away and earning money from advertisements- economist

My mother would rather we emailed each other once a week instead of spending half an hour on the phone every night.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learn ... v107.shtml

please explain... thanks

Kris

[christiancryan]

Hi Kris,

Thanks for your message. Long story short: we went a little far on this question, and so we're flagging it for revision so that C is more clearly wrong.

There IS a crucial difference between "rather than" and "instead of" that you should know. "Rather than" is a conjunction and so can be followed by basically anything, whereas "instead of" is a (complex) preposition -- and a preposition should be followed only by a noun.

Now, the noun can be an "-ing" verb, known as a gerund. So, the sentences you quote are not grammatically wrong in this regard. However, the GMAT seems to prefer "rather than" in comparisons of verbs, because the parallelism is clearest:

(1) "I ski rather than snowboard." -- Correct.
(2) "I ski instead of snowboarding." -- Correct, but a 'little' less parallel, so (1) is slightly preferable. The GMAT probably won't test this point in isolation, though, so we're going to revise the question.

You can also use "rather than" to compare phrases or clauses. In that context, "instead of" is absolutely wrong, even though it's heard in spoken English:
(3) "I went in the cellar rather than in the attic." -- Correct.
(4) "I went in the cellar instead of in the attic." -- INCORRECT although this 'sounds' normal to me, to be honest! (That's why you have to retrain your ear -- it's not always grammatically right!)
(5) "I went in the cellar instead of the attic." -- Also correct. No difference in preference between (3) and (5).

As for the meaning of the two expressions -- to my ear, they have slightly different connotations or nuances ("instead of" sounds more like an actual replacement to me than "rather than," which is somehow softer), but the GMAT doesn't seem to test that connotational difference.

So -- when in doubt, go with "rather than"!

Hope this is helpful!

[kris]

thanks Christian Ryan for your prompt reply. With your explanation, I could now confidently answer such questions.

Since i see the sentences using "instead of" as in Choice C in my reading, i am confused over the usage of "instead of".

thanks

kris

[MBA Action]

I have something toward this question and all the answer choices. Who was not accepting the convential wisdom that earth was flat, was it Columbus or the king and queen of spain? If they are the latter (which I feel more meaningful from the context of the sentence) then all choices are wrong.

When I faced this question, I started ruling out sentences yet to discover that the all initial phrases are followed by Columbus.

Am I missing something?

Thanks for replies.

[JonathanSchneider]

Actually, the modifier here properly applies to Columbus. What might be throwing you off is that the first option (A), which is the one you are first reading, has the main clause in the passive voice. Because of that, you are right in thinking: "what does this modifier really describe?" However, the modifier is a noun modifier, and it will modify what is next to it. We just need to make sure that the rest of the sentence is in active voice. This is mandated here, because we need to satisfy the comparison starting with "rather than." This comparison sets up options for Columbus, so Columbus must take the action that follows.

[stephanie.yeung]

can i use "rather than accepting" in this situation?

[JonathanSchneider]

You want "accept" here. This is because you are comparing this verb to the verb that follows Columbus. "Accepting" is a gerund (noun) in this context, and thus not parallel to the verb that follows Columbus.

[jaimelavie]

I have a question about the correct answer choice: "Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain."

I didn't think "having been sent by..." correctly modifies Christopher Columbus? Is it generally acceptable to place such a phrase after the main sentence?

[StaceyKoprince]

a "comma -ing" modifier modifies the entire previous main clause (subject and verb). So it modifies "CC sailed west" and tells us who sent him west.

But I agree that it sounds awkward. :)

[ashish.jere]

what's the answer for this question? (D)?

[Ben Ku]

(D) is correct here.

[gkumar]

You want "accept" here. This is because you are comparing this verb to the verb that follows Columbus. "Accepting" is a gerund (noun) in this context, and thus not parallel to the verb that follows Columbus.

I am confused on this point.
X Rather than Y is the idiom
X and Y should be parallel and parallelism includes tenses.

He SAILED west rather than ACCEPTED/ACCEPT the conventional wisdom

Transposing the sentence to follow the question's structure:
Rather than ACCEPTED/ACCEPT the conventional wisdom, He SAILED west.

Shouldn't the Y be ACCEPTED since SAILED and ACCEPTED both have the same past tense? ACCEPT sounds wrong to my ear as well.

MGMAT Staff, please clarify! Thanks.

[mikrodj]

I'd like a clarification on this one as gkumar said.

I thought that if you use "rather than" before the subject, you always have to use it with the -ing form, for instance

Rather than calling her, I went to visit her. I thought this was correct.
Rather than called her, I went to visit her. I thought this was incorrect.

However, if you use the idiom after the subject both parts must be parallel.

I went to visit her rather than called her. Correct.

I believe that I've seen many times, rather than -ing at the beginning of the sentence, is it wrong?

Thank you in advance.

[mikrodj]

I also noticed that in the problem 18 of the SC question bank, the correct option uses instead of with a verb and the explanation says

The original sentence contains the idiom "Instead of A, [subject] B", where A contains a verb ending in "-ing". The correct form of this idiom can be seen in the following simple sentence:

Instead of doing his homework, Arthur watched TV

From my understanding here you're using instead of to compare verbs and also using -ing form parallel to a -ed form.

[amitganguly2k12]

Can anyone explain what is wrong with option E.I am not getting the tense logic here.
Thank you in advance.