for manipulating ... than for fulfilling - adheres to //ism.
Only B fits the bill.

Cheers
SOny
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Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon
whose importance is largely symbolic,
more a tool for manipulating people's perceptions than to fulfill a real military need.

I agree we can straightly go for Option B simply based on Parallelism.
But since both the actions are intentional, I feel to is comparably better option than for(if available).
manipulating people's perceptions
fulfilling a real military need

I feel it should be something like
Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic, more a tool to manipulate people's perceptions than to fulfill a real military need.

Can someone explain?

This is an easy one - However, my question is for the usage of more X rather than Y - is it a correct usage?

OG explanation states both the usage are correct - for and to, as you mentioned. I dont see a reason why not?

Hi Mechmeera,
According to my understanding, l feel if the sentence conveyed the meaning - the missile should have been made with the intention of fulfilling real military need-
then "to" would have made sense
But the sentence above talks about only the role of missile, Hence the role of missile(according to critics) is for manipulating people's perceptions and not for fulfilling real military need .

Hope I was able to help
Regards
Teja

abstract nouns:
a plan to do..
a strategy to do ..
an idea to do..

Concrete nouns:
a tool that ....
a machine that...

Regarding an alternate choice that has been suggested by a poster using two infinitives in preference to two gerunds, my suggestion would be not to attempt it in an OG question, a practice that is not going to be of any avail. Perhaps choosing the best of the options would be more rewarding since there is no choice as – none of the above – or --state a better choice – in GMAT.
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It can be either more x than y or x rather than y

for doing can modify a noun. so,
noun for doing
exist in english

but
noun to do
is idiom with some noun

here we do not need to know tool for doing or tool to do is better. we need to know
paralelism

Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic, more a tool for manipulating people's perceptions than to fulfill a real military need.

The parallel structure can take either of the below forms.

1. For manipulating ........... for fulfilling
2. To manipulate ------------ to fulfill

A) for manipulating people's perceptions than to fulfill ===> Missing Parallelism
B) for manipulating people's perceptions than for fulfilling - CORRECT
C) to manipulate people's perceptions rather than that it fulfills ===> Missing Parallelism
D) to manipulate people's perceptions rather than fulfilling ===> Missing Parallelism
E) to manipulate people's perceptions than for fulfilling ===> Missing Parallelism

Hence, Answer is B

Did you like the answer? Hit Kudos
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"B" is the correct choice - Clearly parallelism used. (manipulating ... fulfilling)

Choices A, C, D and E are out as they are not parallel (manipulate... fulfils/manipulate...fulfilling)
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you are right
B is the best option and the only correct option
but OG says: both to and for are correct if they were parallel, although we know "TO" is for "purpose"
in the E_GMAT article, even in Manhattan books, it is clearly mentioned.
am I wrong?

B is the correct answer as it correctly obeys parallelism within the idiom 'more than'.
In B it is the correct construction as 'more...for.......than for' .
In other options the elements within idiom are not parallel .
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It is just not the idiomatic correctness of both 'to fulfill' and 'for fulfilling'. You must see it in combination with the structural parallelism of 'for manipulating' and 'to manipulate'
That is where B overtakes other choices
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a tool for doing something
"for doing" is used to show purpose of a noun.
"to do" is used to show purpose of an action

I learn gmat to go to US.

gmat explanation never mentions this idiom but gmat dose test this point.

daagh mikemcgarry egmat
Isnt the parallelism incorrect here.

More X than Y idiom demands that X and Y be parallel.
Here X is a tool for manipulating people's perceptions and Y is for fulfilling a real military need.

Shouldnt the correct answer be like this?
Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic, more a tool more for manipulating people's perceptions than for fulfilling a real military need.

I understand that it is highly frowned upon to modify OG questions or to try to make it better. But isnt //ism an oversight?
What am i missing here?

Darshak wrote



It is not something about the kind of parallelism. If you meddle with the un-underlined portion, you are getting into an unnecessary land, which is not the real intent of SC. We must get into the habit of avoiding time-wasters.

However, to clarify whether there is a breach of parallelism, it must be said that we should not get confused the 'more …. than' parallelism with the correlative conjunctions parallelism, where the right of side the two correlative words should be parallel.
Ex: Both Jack and Jill sang the song

Neither the novel nor the cinema was interesting'

Here the parsing works out like this.

B. Critics contend that the new missile is a weapon whose importance is largely symbolic, more a tool (for manipulating people's perceptions) than (for fulfilling a real military need.)

Since there is only one tool that is being applied for both the arms, the 'tool' is elided in the second arm. It is a perfectly accepted parallelism practice.


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(A) for manipulating people's perceptions than to fulfill - Wrong: 1) Parallelism

(B) for manipulating people's perceptions than for fulfilling - Correct

(C) to manipulate people's perceptions rather than that it fulfills - Wrong: 1) Parallelism 2) Idiom

(D) to manipulate people's perceptions rather than fulfilling - Wrong: 1) Parallelism 2) Idiom

(E) to manipulate people's perceptions than for fulfilling - Wrong: 1) Parallelism

What you mentioned is correct but that option is not given and gmat is about choosing the best fit option.