bharath2787 wrote:A recent study has discovered that during the past few weeks, many consumers had chosen Topp's Supermarket rather than face the long drive to Savemore

A. had chosen Topp's Supermarket rather than face
B. had chosen Topp's Supermarket instead of facing
C. have chosen Topp's Supermarket instead of facing
D. have chosen Topp's Supermarket rather than facing
E. have chosen Topp's Supermarket rather than face

I have corrected the question as your bold face did not contain "had chosen".

We are talking about the consumers => use 'have'
Facing is not parallel to chosen.

My answer is E

but is chosen parallel with face ? .

in "face the longdrive" face isn't the verb.

why not option C ..

i can very well say X instead of Y. have done X instead of doing Y.. still confused

One thing is sure, GMAT prefers rather than over instead of. Instead of means replacement, here we are not talking about replacement but about preference.

Also since the it is "past few weeks" why is the usage of had incorrect. Somehow i am still confused. have indicates something, which happened in the past but is still on going, while the author mentions past few weeks.Discovered gives a meaning of past.

Experts pitch in!

IMO A
What is the OA?

bharath2787 wrote:A recent study has discovered that during the past few weeks, many consumers had chosen Topp's Supermarket rather than face the long drive to Savemore

A. had chosen Topp's Supermarket rather than face
B. had chosen Topp's Supermarket instead of facing
C. have chosen Topp's Supermarket instead of facing
D. have chosen Topp's Supermarket rather than facing
E. have chosen Topp's Supermarket rather than face

OA is E