Sentence Correction

Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more
conventional approach for someone new to financial planning,
real estate has become increasingly attractive to young people
looking for a first investment.

(A) Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more
conventional approach for someone new to financial
planning, real estate has become increasingly attractive to
young people as a first investment.
(B) Instead of buying stocks and bonds, which is the more
conventional approach for those new to financial planning,
young people have shown an increasing attraction to real
estate as a first investment.
(C) Rather than buying stocks and bonds, which is the more
conventional approach for someone new to financial
planning, real estate has become increasingly attractive to
young people looking for a first investment.
(D) Rather than buy stocks and bonds, which are the more
conventional instruments for those new to financial
planning, young people have turned increasingly to real
estate as a first investment.
(E) Instead of stocks and bonds, which are the more
conventional approach for those new to financial planning,
young people have shown an increasing attraction to real
estate as a first investment.


OA [spoiler](D)[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Can someone explain the usage of 'instead of' and 'rather than'? Confusing for a non-native speaker[/spoiler]

Rather than - shows preference. This expression is generally used in 'parallel' structures. e.g - with two nouns, adjectives, adverbs, infinitives or -ing forms.
E.g. We ought to invest in machinery rather than buildings.

When the main clause has a to - infinitive, rather than is usually followed by an infinitive without to or -ing form.
E.g. I decided to write rather than phone.

Instead of - suggests that one person, thing or action replaces another. Instead is not used alone as a preposition; we use the two words instead of. Instead of is not usually followed by an infinitive.
E.g. I'll have tea instead of coffee, please.

Check this thread out for more details - https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/ins ... t7242.html

In the given question, a preference is being shown (investment in real estates over that in stock and bonds). So, rather than is suitable here. This rules out A, B and E

Option C - Comparison error - Rather than buying stocks and bonds,...,real estates has become increasingly attractive... - Verb buying is being compared with noun real estate.

D eliminates this error by removing direct comparison. Rather than buy stocks and bonds,...,young people have turned increasingly to real estate..

This is a construction of the type - Rather than (verb X), noun (verb Y)
E.g. Rather than go to college, Tim would like to open his own startup.

Thus D is best.

IMO D

Forget about 'instead of' or 'rather than' here.
GMAT generally not decide a answer choice only based on rather than vs instead of

Only D makes sense here

Except D : every other choice is saying : <which is/are the more conventional approach >

which can not be used to refer to a approach.
which is used only for nouns not for an idea.

D says : which are the more conventional instruments(noun)

I misinterpreted "buying" to be a verb in "Instead of buying stocks and bonds,...".

can someone please explain how to determine if "buying" is a verb here.


Thanks!