Hey
GMATNinja,
I am not really sure how the "rather than" is used. There are two questions with seemingly contradictory official answers. The first question is this:
Although Governor Sam Houston was averse to abolition, he adamantly opposed Texas's insurrection and secession from the Union; as a result, he decided to resign from office instead of pledging allegiance to the Confederacy, the legality of which he refused to recognize.
A) Union; as a result, he decided to resign from office instead of pledging allegiance to the Confederacy, the legality of which he refused to recognize
B) Union; as a result, he decided to resign from office rather than to pledge allegiance to the Confederacy, the legality of which he refused to recognize
C) Union; and, as a result, deciding to resign from office instead of pledging allegiance to the Confederacy, which he refused to recognize as legal
D) Union; as a result, he decided to resign from office rather than pledge allegiance to the Confederacy, the legality of which he refused to recognize
E) Union, however he decided to resign from office instead of pledging allegiance to the Confederacy, the legality of which he refused to recognize
The answer provided for this question is (D).
One of the top rated comments on gmatclub mentions that "to" can't appear after a "rather than" and that we use always the bare infinitive after the "rather than;" the "to" after "rather than" is dropped.
There is a similar question I'd solved in the past wherein the "to -- " form followed the "rather than" and it was the correct choice there. So either that question is wrong or there's some more nuance to the rule.
It's this Kaplan question (I can't post the link here coz apparently you need a number of posts to be able to post links):
During and immediately after the California gold rush, the way for a merchant to generate the most profit was to move a limited amount of scarce goods to San Francisco as quickly as possible, rather than to carry larger loads more slowly, determining the design of the clipper ship.
A) to carry larger loads more slowly, determining
B) to carry larger loads more slowly, a situation that determined
C) carry larger loads more slowly, which determined
D) slowly carry larger loads which determined
E) carrying larger loads more slowly, and this was a situation in determining
Here, (B) is the right option even though we have "rather than" preceding "to carry."
What's going on here?