SC: parallelism

[stop@800]

A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors had elected early retirement rather than face the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.
1. had elected early retirement rather than face
2. had elected early retirement instead of facing
3. have elected retiring early instead of facing
4. have elected to retire early rather than facing
5. have elected to retire early rather than face

The OA is 5 however I marked 4 because facing would go parallel with rising.
Please help me understand the gap!!

[mastbombay]

Hi break the sentence into fragments.......

A recent study has found ............, many doctors have elected to retire ealry rather than (to) face the threats of lawsuits and (to face) the rising costs of malpractice insurance.


pay attention to parallel fragments......

face the threats of lawsuits

face the rising costs of malpractice insurance.

A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors had elected early retirement rather than face the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.
1. had elected early retirement rather than face
2. had elected early retirement instead of facing
3. have elected retiring early instead of facing
4. have elected to retire early rather than facing
5. have elected to retire early rather than face

The OA is 5 however I marked 4 because facing would go parallel with rising.
Please help me understand the gap!!

[sp19]

stop@800,
As far as I remember, "instead of" is used for comparing nouns (person, place , thing). When you have phrases ( or actions) it is better to use "rather than". And that is why only 5th option has parallelism when you choose "rather than".

So this statement has two issues, "idiom usage" and "parallelism". You need to fix both of them.

thanks.

[stop@800]

You are right mastbombay, I should have catched this with
facing / the rising.

Thanks you and
Thanks sp19 for clarifying the difference between instead of and rather than.

[vivek.kapoor83]

to retire early and to face shld be parllel but in option 5 , to face is not given then howcm these are parllel.pls explain

[stop@800]

Vivek,
to love, to live and to die
can also be written as
to love, live and die [to is common for all]

[NSNguyen]

IMO: D
have elected .. right tense
than facing - right - after preposition than should be V-ing,
in E , i would choose if face be change to "to face"

[LifetimesofSC]

The answer is 5 and was listed in the 1st post.

I wouldn't use ''facing'' unless there is a ''were''. Since Doctors have an option- either elect early retirement OR face the threats of lawsuits.


test takers have a choice, either beat the GMAT or face the consequences.

[arora007]

You are right mastbombay, I should have catched this with
facing / the rising.

Thanks you and
Thanks sp19 for clarifying the difference between instead of and rather than.

Thanks for pointing out this small but important mistake....

I had chosen D , I thought my answer was right...drawing an analogy from "The Gaint Fungus" example

https://www.beatthegmat.com/giant-fungus-t54745.html

[KrishnenduB]

Stop@800 : Very nice exemplification for clearing the doubt.