Sentence Correction

Reptiles, by drawing their body heat directly from the Sun rather than burning calories to generate it, can survive on ten percent of the nourishment that a mammal of similar size would normally require

A: rather than burning calories to generate it
B: rather than the generation of body heat by burning calories
C: and not from generating it by burning calories
D: instead of by burning calories for generating it
E: instead of body heat generated by burning calories

OA-not known

A: rather than(BY?) burning calories to generate it
B: rather than the generation of body heat by burning calories--OUT
C: and not from generating it by burning calories--NOT PARALLEL
D: instead of by burning calories for generating it
E: instead of body heat generated by burning calories--PASSIVE

IMO D

IMO: A

Reptiles, by drawing their body heat directly from the Sun rather than burning calories to generate it, can survive on ten percent of the nourishment that a mammal of similar size would normally require

A: rather than burning calories to generate it (most parallel from all the choices - IMO)

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:54 am Post subject:

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A: rather than(BY?) burning calories to generate it
B: rather than the generation of body heat by burning calories--OUT
C: and not from generating it by burning calories--NOT PARALLEL
D: instead of by burning calories for generating it
E: instead of body heat generated by burning calories--PASSIVE

IMO D

Hi nitya34,

Can you pls explain reg Option A ? Wasnt clear with the response.


My take : instead of by looks un-idiomatic. Hence D goes.
B ,E is wordy and not in active sense.
Leaves out A & C
IMO ,the proper idiomatic form of "from ... and not from ..." genly asks for similar parts of speech following from. Thats where C misses out.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

IMO - A

this question is now in gmatprep Q pack-1
OA is (A).

(D) is wrong. Reasoning given in gmatprep explanation is as follows:
the series of two preps - 'of' and 'by' - is awkward. Also 'for' is incorrect preposition to describe the connection between burning calories and generating heat.

nitya34 wrote:Reptiles, by drawing their body heat directly from the Sun rather than burning calories to generate it, can survive on ten percent of the nourishment that a mammal of similar size would normally require

A: rather than burning calories to generate it
B: rather than the generation of body heat by burning calories
C: and not from generating it by burning calories
D: instead of by burning calories for generating it
E: instead of body heat generated by burning calories

OA-not known

we should be clear when to use rather than and when to use instead of
1)instead of is used to show replacement of one thing over another.
Eg: I will have juice instead of milk. Here there is no preference of having milk only juice is required. Moreover instead of is always followed by a noun because instead of is a preposition.

2)Rather than is a conjunction and is used to show preference of one thing over another.
Eg: I will have juice rather than milk. Here is juice is not present I can have milk. Unlike instead of rather, since it is a conjunction, is followed by a noun, phrase, clause etc.

Now analyzing the sentences.

A: rather than burning calories to generate it (Correct, parallel to "by drawing their body". Just one questions to the experts if we add rather than by burning calories will it change the meaning?)
B: rather than the generation of body heat by burning calories (not parallel with "by drawing their body")
C: and not from generating it by burning calories (and is used but looking at the sentences an opposing indicator must be used not and)
D: instead of by burning calories for generating it (even though it looks parallel to "by drawing their body" , instead of requires a noun before it, but by burning calories doesn't help our cause)
E: instead of body heat generated by burning calories (changes the meaning : instead of body heat)

Hope this helps