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Comparison issues

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by immaculatesahai » Sun Dec 18, 2011 1:02 am
D it is. You cannot use "instead of" to compare verbs or action words.

I am given the understand that the question is wrong. If I were faced with a question like this one, I would go for D.

I checked up manhattan forums and found the reason for "accept" usage:

In the God of GMAT- Mr. Ron Purewal's words:

"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."

Hope this helps.
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by nitingoel » Sun Dec 18, 2011 8:30 am
ashish2104 wrote:I am really having a big trouble figuring out how to handle comparison questions. I can spot the comparision, but somewhere down the line, i miss to compare correctly.

When we say, consider X,Y or X more than Y - do the two parts X and Y need to be logically parallel? I mean, if X is of the form noun+verb+prepositional phrase then Y also needs to be of the same form. I understand this, but most of the official questions tend to show that the Y part normally contains either noun+verb or simply a noun. I genrally miss on these comparisons.

I went through mgmt sc guide for this topic a numerous number of times, but still not able to master this topic. i miss almost 90% of comparison questions I see and my verbal score tends to come down because of this.

Please help correct this
Below is an example question.

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.

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.
I think the OA should be D because

A.---> "whether should be used instead of if" Hence incorrect
B.--->"whether should be used instead of if" Hence incorrect
C.---> "Instead of" - incorrect usage, Hence incorrect
D --> Looks correct
E. --->"whether should be used instead of if" Hence incorrect
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by mourinhogmat1 » Fri Dec 23, 2011 5:56 pm
Between C and D.
Rather than can be followed by noun, phrase or clause. Instead of can only be followed by nouns.
But the confusing point here is that, instead of means REPLACEMENT whereas rather than means PREFERENCE. So, in this context it is actually a REPLACEMENT of acceptance of one idea over another. But I suppose the basic grammatical rule over rides the meaning aspect of it in this case.

Would any experts like to comment on this?
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by A148507 » Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:43 am
IMO C
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by Gaurav 2013-fall » Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:10 am
B looks to be the best of these. Although, given a choice I would write this sentence in a better manner.
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by neverstepback » Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:39 pm
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

This is the correct answer IMHO as "rather" is used for comparing clauses, whereas "instead" is used to compare nouns
between C and D , C is incorrect as it uses "instead of"
Also ,

Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus ----should be followed by "sailed west" as given in D and not "was sent.....as given in C
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by GmatKiss » Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:34 am
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.

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.

IMO: C
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by parulmahajan89 » Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:12 pm
So what is the correct answer?
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by tisrar02 » Thu Jul 05, 2012 4:43 pm
IMO: C

With A and B, whose accepting what? Christopher or the king and queen. Too redundant, cross them off NEXT!
With C- okay, instead of accepting, means something had happened in the past and sent also has something in the past, good parallelism. Hold on to C
D- Rather than accept sounds way to weird to me. NEXT
E- This sentence is clearly in present terms. Were talking about the past.

Choose C and move on.
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by surmilsehgal » Tue Jul 31, 2012 11:15 pm
answer is c???
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by vaflaly » Wed Aug 15, 2012 4:19 am
When you filter the answer with "if/whether" usage, it remains D and C.
The debate here is the choice b/w instead of and rather than.

instead of --> used for replacement
eg: I bought coffee instead of tea because my money was not enough for a tea
rather than --> used for choice.
eg: I bought coffee rather than tea because i love coffee.

In this question, D is correct because Christopher C made a choice b/w accept general view and go to confirm.

C is not incorrect for the usage of "instead of". "Instead of" is a preposition and thus can introduce only a phrase ( with no verbs). We can say " I stayed in bed all day instead of going to work".
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by rajeshsinghgmat » Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:29 pm
Let it B.
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by ohsballer » Wed May 08, 2013 10:50 am
So what's the answer? I chose C, but I was torn on that or D.

Also the GMAT expert answered another question. :?:
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by VyDinh » Wed Jun 05, 2013 3:12 am
I go with C.
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by helennqh » Thu Jul 04, 2013 11:36 pm
D is my answer
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