George is a dog rather than a cat.

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George is a dog rather than a cat. [#permalink]

29 Jun 2008, 08:23

I learnt form this forum - "George is a dog rather than a cat." is wrong

Someone said "rather than" show preference. Georage does not have a choice between dog and cat. We should use instead of.

Question from OG:

Recently discovered fossil remains strongly suggest that the Australian eff-laying mammals of today are a branch of the main stern of mammalian evolution rather than developing independently from a common ancestor of mammals more than 220 million years ago.

(A) ...
(B) rather than a type that developed independently from
(C) rather than a type whose development was independent of
(D) instead of developing independently from
(E) instead of a development that was independent of

I immediately rule out (A), (B) and (C) because of the dog-cat rule above.

The OA is (B) and the explanation said both "rather than" and "instead of" are ok.

Please kindly advise.

Million thanks.

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Re: George is a dog rather than a cat. [#permalink]

30 Jun 2008, 00:55

I would go for (B) as well...

This question however cannot be immediately reduced to a choice between 'rather than' and 'instead of'. We should first look if the two terms on both side of 'rather than' or 'instead of' are 'parallel' .

X rather than Y

X = a branch of the main stern of mammalian evolution
Y = ?

Comparing "a branch" with "a type" sounds reasonable.

Have a look at this site for comparison of 'rather than' and 'instead of': http://www.englishrules.com/writing/200 ... ead-of.php

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Re: George is a dog rather than a cat. [#permalink]

30 Jun 2008, 01:21

judokan wrote:

You should not be victim of the rule. Better is Be flexible! Because the sentence here relies on the parallelism: "a branch"...."a type" or branch. In addition, you should find out what modifies best "a type", it will be correct option!
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Senior Manager

Joined: 19 Mar 2008

Posts: 360

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Kudos [?]: 12 [0], given: 0

Re: George is a dog rather than a cat. [#permalink]

30 Jun 2008, 07:35

thanks all. Now I know it is not a strict rule.

Re: George is a dog rather than a cat. [#permalink] 30 Jun 2008, 07:35

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