According to a study by the Agricultural Research Service, confinement

Yeah all the other answer choices violate the parallelism rule and can be eliminated

good question .............!!!

D

Rather than X to Y

X and Y need to be parallel.

'rather than' is required to modify noun 'animals'

X must be adapted to Y, rather than Y (adapted to) X

Only D fulfills this condition

How will we decide which on to use between instead of and rather than ?

Instead of - Generally used in the context of substitution (noun). "of" in instead of is a preposition...so it should be followed by a noun.

I like vanilla instead of strawberry

Rather than is used with verbs/nouns. generally GMAT doesn`t test on that split.

Thanks
Balaji

Looks like the only difference between C and D is that C is more wordy, right?

yeah, this is a common a pattern in gmat, if there are 2 parallel things, the second one can be redundant.
For example, "rather than animals (must be adapted)".

daagh can you please brief this question

Hi Daagh,

How do we know when to include the elided word and when not to?

REgards,

Here's the official explanation provided by the GMAC for this question:

The given sentence cites a finding that improvement of agricultural stock breeding requires that buildings be adapted to animals, not animals to buildings. The given sentence is not well-formed; in following adapted with the verb form adapting, which does not fit with the verb form must be in the first portion of the construction using rather than, it fails to preserve a required parallelism in verb form. The phrase rather than adapting … buildings errs in suggesting confinement buildings as the implicit subject of adapting.

Option A: This answer choice fails for the reasons explained above.

Option B: The phrase the adaptation of is nonparallel to adapted. The wording confusingly suggests that the adaptation of animals to buildings is being presented as an alternative to animals, or perhaps to confinement buildings.

Option C: The verbal form to be adapted is not appropriately parallel to adapted and does not fit with the verb form must be in the first portion of the construction using rather than. The wording confusingly suggests that animals to be adapted to buildings is being presented as an alternative to animals, or perhaps to confinement buildings.

Option D: Correct. In this answer choice, the passive verb form adapted is implicit: animals [adapted] to buildings. This phrasing fits with the verb form must be in the first portion of the construction using rather than. So the parallelism with the earlier occurrence of adapted is preserved, and the sentence is coherent and grammatically correct.

Option E: The preposition instead of could be used in place of rather than, but the parallelism requirement, noted for rather than would also apply to use of instead of. The phrase animals adapting to buildings is illogically nonparallel to buildings must be adapted to animals.

The correct answer is D.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

[quote="eybrj2"]According to a study by the Agricultural Research Service, confinement buildings must be adapted to animals, rather than adapting animals to buildings, if farmers want to breed their stock more successfully.

(A) rather than adapting animals

(B) instead of the adaptation of animals

(C) rather than animals to be adapted

(D) rather than animals

(E) instead of animals adapting

this is hard. we need to know "instead of " and "rather than" first.

"instead of" is a preposition, which stand before a noun.
1st use
'instead of" connect 2 similar nouns. this use makes "instead of" look like a conjunction because it connect 2 similar things. but "instead of" is a preposition.
I eat rice instead of noodle for my dinner.
2nd use
"Instead of' can stand before doing as a participle. participle is entity which can refer to the subject and modify the whole main clause
instead of learning english, i go out for change. (we dont need 'learning " to be parallel with 'go out" grammatically though they are parallel logically)

"rather than" is conjunction, which connect 2 similar things.
I learn english rather than french
i learn english rather than go out for change.

"rather than" can be used to connect 2 clauses. this use is rare. choice D presents this use

in choice D, "rather than" , still as conjunction, is used to connect 2 clauses. this use is rare because 2 whole clause are different, but not 2 nouns. we normally use "rather than" to say 2 nouns are different.

yesterday, I learned english in the dorm rather than my friend worked in the dorm.

both nouns and verb change , so, we use "rather than" before full clause.

in our choice D, the pattern is similar except the point that ellipsis comes. so , the second clause looks strange.

rather than animal to buildings
this means
rather than animal must be adapted to buildings.

now, we come back to other choices.
choice A. "adapting" must be parallel with any "doing" at the first clause because "rather than" is conjunction. we dont have any "doing", so, it is wrong.
choice B. "adaptation" stand after "instead of" as a preposition, so , (read above ), an entity must be parallel with 'adaptation'. we dont have that entity. it is wrong
choice C. "animal to be adapted" is still a noun phrase. we need another noun to be parallel with it. there is no such a noun. it is wrong.
choice E. "animal adapting" is still a noun. we need a noun to be parallel with it. there is no such a noun. it is wrong

[quote="eybrj2"]According to a study by the Agricultural Research Service, confinement buildings must be adapted to animals, rather than adapting animals to buildings, if farmers want to breed their stock more successfully.

(A) rather than adapting animals

(B) instead of the adaptation of animals

(C) rather than animals to be adapted

(D) rather than animals

(E) instead of animals adapting

this is hard. we need to know "instead of " and "rather than" first.


"rather than" is conjunction, which connect 2 similar things.
I learn english rather than french
i learn english rather than go out for change.

in choice D, "rather than" , still as conjunction, is used to connect 2 clauses. this use is rare because 2 whole clause are different, but not 2 nouns. we normally use "rather than" to say 2 nouns are different.

yesterday, I learned english in the dorm rather than my friend worked in the dorm.

both nouns and verb change , so, we use "rather than" before full clause.

the use of "rather than" in choice D means that "rather than" can be used before a clause. this is special use of "rather than" which we have to remember. this is purely grammatical point and not relevant to meaning problem. this question is not basic and is at 700 level

According to a study by the Agricultural Research Service, confinement buildings must be adapted to animals, rather than adapting animals to buildings, if farmers want to breed their stock more successfully.

This question is testing parallelism.

(A) rather than adapting animals

-- adapted vs adapting. Not parallel.

(B) instead of the adaptation of animals

'adapted' vs 'adaption'. Not parallel.

(C) rather than animals to be adapted

'must be adapted' vs 'to be adapted'. Not parallel.

(D) rather than animals

-- Looks good. Confinement buildings must be adapted to animals, rather than animals to buildings. Makes sense.

(E) instead of animals adapting

-- adapted vs adapting. Not parallel.

I didn't understand why A is wrong. must be adapted is also a verb form (adapt) and adapting is also used as verb, I think. or maybe its used as a gerund, I couldn't find. can someone please throw light on this???

Hi pk6969

"adapting" here is an used as an adjective describing animal. It answers the question "what kind of animals?". The ones that are adapting.

Option A is not parallel to the clause "confinement buildings must be adapted to animals".

In Option D we have "confinement buildings must be adapted to animals, rather than animals (adapted) to buildings.

Thanks