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anish777
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According to a study by the Agricultural Research Service, confinement 10 Jun 2023, 07:47
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Kali123
daagh
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.

The meaning of the topic is that, when animals are waiting to deliver the young ones, all facilities such good ventilation, dry bedding, ample water, good walking space, privacy etc should be provided so that the offsprings are healthy. Don't put them in whatever is avaibale handily and make the pregnant animals suffer. This is basic animal husbandry.

(A) rather than adapting animals --- adapting is not parallel to adapted.

(B) instead of the adaptation of animals, ---- the adaptation is not parallel to adapted.

(C) rather than animals to be adapted --- 'to be adapted to buildings' changes the meaning as "to be adapted" is substantially different from 'must be adapted"

(D) rather than animals -- correct choice, with the word adapted being elided here.

(E) instead of animals adapting --- adapting is not parallel to adapted. Meaning also changes.

Hi Daagh,

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

REgards,
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Hi Daagh

Can you put some light on this question ? I have the same doubt.

Thanks
Anish
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Sj1020
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According to a study by the Agricultural Research Service, confinement 27 Jul 2023, 15:41
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ChiranjeevSingh
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.
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where do you find these explanations please tell
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Raman109
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According to a study by the Agricultural Research Service, confinement 15 Oct 2023, 11:49
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AjiteshArun mikemcgarry GMATNinja MartyTargetTestPrep
abhimahna

Hi, I got option D right, but I can't put my finger on some solid reasoning. One of the explanations said that this construction is right: "Confinement buildings must be adapted to animals, rather than animals adapted to buildings." But the doubt I have here is that as "rather than" demands parallelism, we have a clause before rather than, and on the other side, isn't it "animals adapted to buildings" a noun phrase? Or if I am missing any verb before the verbal "adapted." Or the right construction is "Confinement buildings must be adapted to animals, rather than animals be adapted to buildings" or "Confinement buildings must be adapted to animals, rather than animals must be adapted to buildings." Sorry, I am sharing some stupid constructions, but some expert opinions will help me clear my thought process to avoid these silly mistakes. Also, I'm just sharing how I eliminated my other options so that you can comment if I eliminated them for the wrong reason.
A. "adapting animals" is ING verbal and not parallel to the clause before rather than.
2. We are not looking here for substituting one option over the other. Here, we are showing a preference between the two options, so it is better to use "rather than"
3. "to be adapted" something yet to happen?
5. Same reasoning as for B to eliminate Instead of.
Appreciate your support in advance.
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