(E) have elected to retire early rather than face

rising is current... so had wouldn't be appropriate...

instead of doesn't sound right..

facing also doesn't sound right...

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.

(D) have elected to retire early rather than facing


Why not D. I think D is better in terms of llism.

facing........rising costs...

Hi BCC145,
It is always nice to see the participants. Keep the spirit up

But it is too early to post the OA now. Let's have some other friends answer the question as well

(A) had elected early retirement(noun phrase) rather than face(verb)
(B) had elected early retirement (noun phrase) instead of facing (gerund)
(C) have elected retiring early instead of facing (gerund)
(D) have elected to retire early rather than facing (gerund)
(E) have elected to retire early rather than face (implying "to", which is infinitive)

In D gerund can't be || to an infinitive "to retire"

so E is the only || answer

since recent study, therefore present tense,,,,,
since preference of one thing over other,,,,hence rather than,,,,

parallelism

have elected to retire early rather than (to ) face.....

so ans (E)

E it is.

D is || but we need ||ism at different place.

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

"to" is generally not required in the second and subsequent parts of a || structure.
_________________

SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL, OXFORD - MBA CLASS OF 2008

Can someone please explain why 'instead of' is unidiomatic.

Are there some rules around the use of 'instead of' as with 'not only...but also' that we need to keep in mind

Thanks

"instead of" means "in place of".
"rather than" also means the same.
However, we use 'instead of' or 'rather than' based on the context.

In the given SC, there are following points to be pondered:
1. We need 'have elected' to correct the tense error. So only C, D and E have this need.
2. Among C, D and E, we can knock out C because D and E has 'have elected to retire' i.e an infinitive form which is simple and preferrable.
3. In D, 'facing' is not parallel to 'to retire' so D is out.
4. In E, 'face' is parallel to 'to retire'. Actually we could have used 'to face' so that sentence would look like:
A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors have elected to retire early rather than (to) face the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.

Coming to your question: "why not 'instead of'??
In this SC, we nailed down to option D and E because of 'have elected to retire' so if we want to use 'instead of' in place of 'rather than' then sentences would look like:

D (Modified) - have elected to retire early instead of facing
Though we can very well replace 'rather than' by 'instead of' but 'facing' is not parallel to 'to retire'.

E (Modified) - have elected to retire early instead of face
Here 'instead of face' is not at all proper construction.

Right now I can think of following sentence in which IMO 'instead of' has been used properly.Also "retiring" is parallel to "facing".

Ex- A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors have thought of retiring early instead of facing the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.

Remember that "instead of" is a preposition and "rather than" is a preposition as well as a conjuction.

When the main clause has a to-infinitive, rather than is usually followed by an infinitive without to (this is what we have to use in the given SC). An –ing form is also possible, especially at the beginning of a sentence.
Ex- Rather than writing a mail, I decided to call him.

Others, please point out if I have made any mistake while giving the explanantion.

Regards,
Brajesh