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.

Explanation for C and E why they are incorrect :
This choice begins with "instead of," which is incorrectly used to compare the verbs "accepting" and "sailed." When comparing verbs, "rather than" is the correct choice.
I do not understand that in this question it is saying verbs cant be compared using Instead of and in previous question (posted on top) , it is putting instead of doing there.

pls underline the questions as it looks like in original question.

GMATMadeEasy wrote:I have got two questions from manhattan CAT and extra questions :

1. Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, real estate has become increasingly the choice of young people as a first investment.

A> buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, real estate has become increasingly the choice of young people
B> buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional approach for those new to financial planning, increasingly young people have shown a choice for real estate
C> buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional approach for someone new to financial planning, the choice of young people increasingly has become real estate
D> buying stocks and bonds, which are the conventional investments for those new to financial planning, young people have increasingly chosen real estate
E> stocks and bonds, which are the conventional approach for those new to financial planning, young people have shown an increasing choice of real estate

Explanation in Manhattan says that :
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
I will post an another question which says that for verb, we should use Rather than Not Instead of. May be i am missing something in explanation.

Instead of X,Y

Below are correct options.

Instead of stocks and bonds, real estate...
Instead of buying stocks and bonds, young people purchase...

GMATMadeEasy wrote: 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.

INCORRECT
Instead of X, Y : accepting and sent not acting for a same subject
Instead of accpeting, chris sailed OR anything, but remember we are sharing the subject.

GMATMadeEasy wrote: 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.

Instead of accepting, chistopher sailed: This Part is correct in C as in D.
Rather than is more correct than Instead of as per English grammer usage..Hence C is less preffered over D.

Hope that helps!