example

1000 SC:399 wrote: In spite of federal subsidizing of public transportation systems massively and major local efforts to persuade the public to use public transportation, mass transit has been steadily losing patronage to the private automobile for the past thirty years.

(A) In spite of federal subsidizing of public transportation systems massively and major local efforts to persuade

(B) In spite of massive federal subsidizing of public transportation systems and major efforts locally at persuading

(C) Despite massive federal subsidies to public transportation systems and the making of major efforts locally to persuade

(D) Despite massive federal subsidies to public transportation systems and major local efforts to persuade

(E) Despite massive federal subsidies to public transportation systems and making major local efforts at persuading

honestly, you should not split the options just like that.

its tricky. yet not that difficult once you know trap.

for this problem key is ''parallelism''

answer should be D.

when I said split I meant spliting the options A,B and C,D,E just because they start with different words.

FOr this specific problem key to solve is to go by parallelism.

in available options
(A)....subsidizing........ and .........efforts to persuade discard
(B) In spite of massive federal subsidizing of public transportation systems and major efforts locally at persuading wrong all the way
(C) .....l subsidies to ,,,,,,,,and the making ............ discard
(D) Despite massive federal subsidies to public transportation systems and major local efforts to persuade
(E) similar to C discard

In spite of vs Despite

In spite of - used to express the idea of contrast.

A). In spite of - is used as a preposition. In spite of + noun means almost same as although + clause.

e.g - We went out in spite of the rain. ( = .... although it was raining.)

B). In spite of is the opposite of because of .

e.g - She passed her exams in spite of her teacher. => (She had a bad teacher)

She passed her exams because of her teacher. => (She had a good teacher).

C). In spite of cannot be followed directly by a that - clause. Instead we can use in spite of the fact that

e.g - He is a good company in spite of the fact that he talks all the time.

From the question, i would prefer option D because the word "despite" fit in more appropriately with sentence structure than "in spite of". The major issue in this particular question is Parallelism. "Despite" balanced the verbal constructions in the sentence which thus compliment the grammatical structure and make it balance.

isisalaska wrote:Is it the same thing? examples please

'In spite of' and 'despite' are both preposition having similar meaning or expression. They are similar to the usage of 'although' or 'even though'. Both are used to express a contrast between two things and are common in writing than in speaking.
'Despite' occur more in use than 'in spite of' because it's a little more formal than the later, and it is mostly favored over 'in spite of' in edited writing.
let have a look at some examples.
- usage with '-ing'
(a) The couple arrived the party late leaving despite leaving their home early.
(b) John was a fast athlete in spite of being extremely over weight.

-usage with a Noun
(a) Justin company is performing beyond people's expectation despite the country shambolic economy.
(b) Alex secured the construction contract in spite of of his horrible records.

It should be noted that to every rules, there are some exception which we should abide with. The following exception will be discussed below.
(1) Do not use the clause, 'that' immediately after 'despite' or 'in spite of' rather it should be use in this format so as to avoid sentence imbalance.
e.g 'in spite of' the fact 'that' or
'despite' the fact 'that'
examples....
correct: when we had a stop over in Madrid, it was hot in spite of the fact that it was only in the end of July.
wrong: when we had a stop over in Madrid, it was hot in spite of that it was only in the end of July.

This should also be applied in the case of 'despite'.

i hope this will be useful to you.
Thanks