Sentence Correction

A recent article in The New York Times reported that many recent college graduates had decided on moving back into their parents’ home rather than face the uncertainty and expense of the rental market.

A) had decided on moving back into their parents’ home rather than face
B) had decided on moving back into their parents’ homes instead of facing
C) have decided to move back into their parents’ homes instead of facing
D) had decided to move back into their parents’ homes rather than facing
E) have decided to move back into their parents’ homes rather than face


OA E

Source: Princeton Review

This question has to do with the arrangement of tense.

Option A - Incorrect
The use of past perfect tense 'had' is wrong because it is explaining what has happened in the past instead the sentence is explaining what happened in the present.

Option B - Incorrect
It has the same issue as option A. The use of 'instead of' i wrong in this context, it is supposed to compare nouns rather than verbs.

Option C - Incorrect
Although it possesses the right form of verb, the use of 'instead of' is incorrect.

Option D - Incorrect
Wrong form of tense. We should use 'have' instead of 'had'.

Option E - Correct
This answer choice has the correct form of tense and the use of 'rather than' in the sentence is correct as it can be used to compare verbs, nouns or clauses.