Sentence Correction

Nuclear fusion is the force that powers the Sun, the Stars and hydrogen bombs, merging the nuclei of atoms and not splitting them apart, as in nuclear reactors.

A.
B. merging the nuclei of atoms instead of splitting them apart, like nuclear reactors
C. merging the nuclei of atoms rather than splitting them apart, as nuclear reactors do
D. and merger the nuclei of atoms but does not split them apart, as is done in nuclear reactors
E. and merges the nuclei of atoms, unlike atomic reactors that split them apart

Answer is C

Need explanation pls.

Thanks,
Umaa

umaa wrote:Nuclear fusion is the force that powers the Sun, the Stars and hydrogen bombs, merging the nuclei of atoms and not splitting them apart, as in nuclear reactors.

A.
B. merging the nuclei of atoms instead of splitting them apart, like nuclear reactors
C. merging the nuclei of atoms rather than splitting them apart, as nuclear reactors do
D. and merger the nuclei of atoms but does not split them apart, as is done in nuclear reactors
E. and merges the nuclei of atoms, unlike atomic reactors that split them apart

Answer is C

Need explanation pls.

Thanks,
Umaa

I go with C .
"merging" is a particple clause which acts as a modifier.
thus D and E are out.

B : 2 things..GMAT prefer "rather than" over "Instead of" and Usage of Like over As. here we Need as .

Left with A and C

A " not splitting them apart" is awkward and Merging the nuclee is "Done" by Nuclear rectors and not "in" Nuclear reactors

Thus left with C.

Hope its clear...

1.Participle form of verb, merging, is correctly modifies the clause before comma.
2.As is used to compare clauses
3.We are comparing to clause, and ‘do’ completes the second clause.

I go with C

.."splitting them apart" is an action. Thus, "as"....do should be used here

- The clause after comma is a modifier, not an additional info, hence cross out D and E.
- "Rather than" is preferred to both "Instead of" and "But not"
- "Like" is used to show similarity and must be followed by a noun, whereas "As" is used to show an example or to introduce dependant clause.
In other words - use "Like" to compare nouns, use "As" to compare clauses.

Regards!

how do we know we need to compare nouns to use "like" and need to compare clause to use "as".

IMO C

karmayogi wrote:1.Participle form of verb, merging, is correctly modifies the clause before comma.
2.As is used to compare clauses
3.We are comparing to clause, and ‘do’ completes the second clause.

Agreed. I would add that "rather than" is the appropriate idiom in this case. According to MGMAT SC, page 200, "the GMAT seems to avoid INSTEAD OF even when it is correct".