OE:
This sentence contains a tense error and a parallelism error. Had chosen, in the past perfect tense, suggests that the establishments chose to sell these items before some other past event occurred, but there is no other past tense event that this event would logically precede. Has discovered is in the present perfect tense, which expresses that an event began in the past and is ongoing; within the past six months suggests that the event is ongoing; had should be changed to has.
Additionally, the establishments had chosen sales (noun) rather than offer (verb); this construction is not parallel. In the idiom X rather than Y, X and Y must be parallel. Both items should be either verbs or nouns.
Choice B retains the tense error.
Choice D retains the parallelism error; chosen to sell... rather than offering is not parallel.
Choice C uses the unidiomatic chosen selling... rather than offering; idiomatically, chosen should be followed by an infinitive (chosen to...).
Choice E is the best answer. The comparison chosen to sell...rather than offer is parallel and idiomatically correct. The to after chosen applies to both sell and offer. In many cases, prepositions that apply to two items can be omitted before the second item. (Jane knitted the blanket for her mom and her dad.)
The correct answer is E.
tonebeeze wrote:The advisory board of a vending machine company has discovered that, within the past six months, many establishments had chosen sales of freshly made items rather than offer snacks from the machines; as a result, the company plans on removing machines from several malls and small offices.
(A) had chosen sales of freshly made items rather than offer
(B) had chosen sales of freshly made items instead of offering
(C) have chosen selling freshly made items instead of offering your answer
(D) have chosen to sell freshly made items rather than offering
(E) have chosen to sell freshly made items rather than offer correct
OA: E
Regards,
Karthik
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