moadhia wrote: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.
(A) had elected early retirement rather than face
(B) had elected early retirement instead of facing
(C) have elected retiring early instead of facing
(D) have elected to retire early rather than facing
(E) have elected to retire early rather than face

I am confused as to why C is wrong ? Is it because "instead of" is being used and not "rather than" ? What if I replace "instead of" with "rather than" in C, would it be correct? Can anyone explain?

BTW, the OA is E

On page 200 of the MGMAT SC, it is written that the GMAT regards "rather than" as the correct idiom over "instead of." According to the book, "the GMAT seems to avoid INSTEAD OF even when it is correct."

As to why "...have elected retiring..." is incorrect, I am not sure of the grammatical rule (even though I am a native English speaker). Possibly a verb that is a direct object of the verb "elect" can only be followed by an infinitive, and not by a gerund.

The charts on the page may be provide some insight into verb forms that are direct objects of other verbs:
https://www.iei.uiuc.edu/structure/struc ... infinitive

IMO instead of is used when nouns are there.

But when clauses/actions are compared then rather than is preferred in GMAT. Since we are comparing clauses here so rather than preferred.

BTW the study has already completed and have already published its results...

so why "have elected" is correct shouldn't it be "had elected"

its because "within the past few years" tells us whats coming later on in the sentence is in the past. so we don't need "had"...

moadhia wrote:its because "within the past few years" tells us whats coming later on in the sentence is in the past. so we don't need "had"...

Can you please elaborate a bit on this ? Why this is the case ?

If suppose we have to choose between the below three sentences, then which one would have been preferred:

1. A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors "have elected to retire early rather than face" the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.

2. A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors "elected to retire early rather than face" the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.

3. A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors "had elected to retire early rather than face" the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.

As far as I know, both 1 & 2 should be correct.

Gmat Gurus, any comments ???

What is wrong in sentence#3 above ?