scottleey wrote:
I think the point is:
The comparison of contact. Whether contact is continuous or at regularly spaced points. The meaning of the sentence is trying to point out contact done continuously is better than done regularly spaced.
For choices A, B, which sounds pretty reasonable at first glance, you reject them for not having at
Only D makes the meaning complete.
The sentence goes:
contact, blah blah blah, is effected continuously over a broad surface instead of a series
of regularly spaced points with no bonding
Compares contact effected continuously to a series of regularly spaced points. <--- This doesnt make any sense whether it is A, B or C.
Not sure if I am putting my point across correctly.
Yes, I agree with your view. I would just like to try to put it across a bit more clearly, if I can.
The comparison markers here are
X instead of Y
X rather than Y
The comparison is between the two processes by which "the contact is effected":
Process 1 (X): The contact is effected
continuously over a broad surface.
Process 2 (Y): The contact is effected
at a series of regularly spaced points with no bonding in between.
Hence the compared elements are
continuously over a broad surface and
at a series of regularly spaced points with no bonding in between.
Moreover, the usage of "instead of" is restricted to nouns only, whereas "rather than" is more versatile and can be used for comparing not just nouns, nut also other elements such as participles, phrases etc. Hence "rather than" is the correct choice here.
The correct answer is D, which takes care of both the above issues.