Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly

Question

Pack 8, Question 3 of 5:

Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly fail,  Spruce Pine, North Carolina, would turn its attention from mica to quartz and become the world’s largest provider of high-grade, pure quartz for computer chips and other electronics.

A. Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly fail,
B. Rather than abandon the mining industry that seemed about to fail,
C. Instead of the mining industry that was seemingly about to fail being abandoned,
D. Instead of abandon the mining industry that seemed about to fail,
E. In place of abandoning the mining industry’s imminent failure seemingly about to occur,

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shameekv1989 · Answer

Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly fail, Spruce Pine, North Carolina, would turn its attention from mica to quartz and become the world’s largest provider of high-grade, pure quartz for computer chips and other electronics.

A. Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly fail, ->  abandoning and turn are not parallel 
B. Rather than abandon the mining industry that seemed about to fail, ->  turn and abandon needs to act as verb and be parallel which this option does perfectly 
C. Instead of the mining industry that was seemingly about to fail being abandoned, ->  mica and quartz both are part of mining industry. This option changes the meaning by saying instead of mining industry (which Sprune Pine is) would now turn its attention to something else; doesn't make sense.  
D. Instead of abandon the mining industry that seemed about to fail, ->  In "Instead of" of is a preposition and hence needs to be followed by a noun, here it is followed by a verb, hence incorrect 
E. In place of abandoning the mining industry’s imminent failure seemingly about to occur, ->  abandoning the failure?? doesn't make sense - Eliminate

Meaning :- 
Spruce Pine, the mining industry in North Carolina,  would turn its attention from mica to quartz  and become largest producer of some things  rather than abandon  the industry that seemed to fail.

X would do something rather than Y

Answer -> B

NandishSS · Answer

Should be abandon not abandoning: and that was about to seemingly fail not concise - Incorrect

Concise and conveys the correct meaning - Correct

Use of being; that was about to seemingly fail not concise - Incorrect

instead of" should only take a NOUN as its object, not a verb - Incorrect

Alters the meaning - Incorrect

debjit1990 · Answer

Ans:B a)Rather than--parallel marker. turn & abandoning not parallel. eliminate. b)correct c)being--eliminate

d)After "Instead of" direct noun should be used. eliminate e)Mining change-eliminate

TheNightKing · Answer

Parallelism Error. Rather than X (abandoning) is not parallel to Y (turn). Also: about to seemingly fail? - Not Concise.

Parallelism is Okay. "That seemed about to fail" is a more concise. We can keep B.

If we are saying instead of mining industry than we need some other industry but that is clearly not the case. Basically Parallelism Error again. Also being in the middle of the sentence is usually not correct.

Here Idiom/Meaning comes into play. Rather than is usually used to indicate preference of one over the other and Instead of expresses the choice of the first option to the exclusion of the second. We can see we have a case of preference and not exclusion. So we stick with B over D.

This is a filler option. Because we needed a fifth option so we have it. In place of is incorrect. seemingly about to occur just changes the meaning. So we can eliminate it very easily.

Option (B)

Raxit85 · Answer

Imo. B

Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly fail, Spruce Pine, North Carolina, would turn its attention from mica to quartz and become the world’s largest provider of high-grade, pure quartz for computer chips and other electronics.

Spruce pine would tern it's attention from A to B and become the largest provider of high grade, pure quartz for M & N rather than abandoning,,,,
List is not parallel, as correct expression is X rather than Y, here noun is compared with verb.

A. Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly fail,- incorrect as above reason.
B. Rather than abandon the mining industry that seemed about to fail,- parallelism is maintained and SVA is maintained, I.e. industry seemed about to fail, and makes sense.
C. Instead of the mining industry that was seemingly about to fail being abandoned,- Usage of instead of is incorrect as 'rather than' is required for preference and usage of being and seemingly is incorrect.
D. Instead of abandon the mining industry that seemed about to fail,- Noun is preferred after instead of but here verb is mentioned, hence incorrect.
E. In place of abandoning the mining industry’s imminent failure seemingly about to occur, - use of in place of is nonsensical, imminent and about to occur distorts the meaning of original sentence.

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snoep · Answer

Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly fail , Spruce Pine, North Carolina, would turn its attention from mica to quartz and become the world’s largest provider of high-grade, pure quartz for computer chips and other electronics.

A. Rather than  abandoning  the mining industry that was about to seemingly fail,
 Abandoning is not parallel to turn. 
Seemingly fail means appear to fail -> rephrasing the sentence , that was about to appear to fail. Should preposition about to modifying appear verb or modify fail. What is about to happen? is it About to appear to fail or About to fail? Latter is correct word choice based on the context.

B. Rather than abandon the mining industry that seemed about to fail,
 Abandon is parallel to turn
seemed about to fail -> appeared about to fail -? makes more sense. keep the answer!

C. Instead of the mining industry that was seemingly about to fail being abandoned,
 - There is no verb in That clause. Seemingly is an Adverb and Fail is Noun. 
- Spruce Pine, NC, would turn its attention to X industry instead of mining industry. In this option, we don't have such thing as X industry rather another comparison introduced as from mica to quartz. it fails the comparison

D. Instead of abandon the mining industry that seemed about to fail,
 instead of -> is followed by noun not by verb/action.

E. In place of abandoning the mining industry’s imminent failure seemingly about to occur,
 Its a messy option. Abandoning the industry's failure, it would turn its attention to something else? Not logical.
There is no verb. Seemingly is adverb. we need something like this - failure that seemed about to occur

B is the best!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation

Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly fail,  Spruce Pine, North Carolina, would turn its attention from mica to quartz and become the world’s largest provider of high-grade, pure quartz for computer chips and other electronics.

A.  Rather than   abandoning  the mining industry that was about to  seemingly  fail, 
 B.  Rather than   abandon  the mining industry that  seemed  about to fail, 
 C.  Instead of  the mining industry that was  seemingly  about to fail being  abandoned , 
 D.  Instead of   abandon  the mining industry that  seemed  about to fail, 
 E.  In place of   abandoning  the mining industry’s imminent failure  seemingly  about to occur,

A quick look at our answer choices reveals a split between “rather than” and “instead of/in place of.” There is also a split between “seemingly” and “seems.” We have to decide on what form of “abandon” is needed.

“Instead of” and “in place of” act as prepositions in this sentence, and prepositions must be followed by a noun or pronoun. They cannot be followed by a verb. “Abandoning” is a gerund, which is a verbal that acts like a noun. “Abandon” is a verb, so it cannot follow either of these prepositions.  Option D cannot be the correct answer.

While Options C and E have a noun following their introductory prepositions, there are some other issues with those sentences. “In place of” is a less concise option than “instead of,” and Option E uses “imminent” and “about to occur,” which mean the same thing. This is redundant. Option E cannot be the best answer.  Option C uses the awkward, wordy relative clause “that was seemingly about to fail being abandoned.” It cannot be the best answer.

Now we are left with two options. Option A uses the phrase “about to seemingly fail.” This might seem like the same thing as “about to fail,” but in fact, the entire meaning of the phrase has changed. By having the adverb “seemingly” modify “fail,” this sentence now has the meaning that the mining industry only looked like it was about to fail, not that actual failure was about to occur. All the other sentences have the meaning of actual failure, not the appearance of failure. Logically, the sentence makes more sense if we are talking about the possibility of actual failure versus only the appearance of failure. If the town had not decided to shift its attention to another product, the mining industry would have failed. Option A also doesn’t have parallel structure. It places “abandoning” parallel to “turn” and “become,” but they are not parallel forms.  Option A cannot be the correct answer.

Option B is succinct and properly places “abandon, turn, and become” in parallel.  Option B is the best answer.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done  shameekv1989 ! You cracked the code on this one! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done  NandishSS ! Great job finding the problems in each option! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done  debjit1990  - you cracked the code on this one!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Another great breakdown of a tricky SC question,  TheNightKing ! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done  Raxit85 ! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Another great one,  snoep ! Good explanations for each option! Kudos to you!

renzofig · Answer

Hi expert,

I have a doubt regarding parallelism with gerunds. A gerund is actually a noun that has the verb-ing form. Is it possible to have a parallel structure with gerund vs noun.

Or we can only have parallel structures with gerund vs gerund.

Thanks

VerbalBot · Answer

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Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly

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Rather than abandoning the mining industry that was about to seemingly

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