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Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch

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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   12 Apr 2022, 17:46
I eliminated D because the modifier "having been sent by the king and queen of Spain" wrongly modifies India. Can someone confirm ?
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Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   12 Apr 2022, 19:16
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Namangupta1997 wrote:
I eliminated D because the modifier "having been sent by the king and queen of Spain" wrongly modifies India. Can someone confirm ?


That's not quite correct. A comma+ing modifier can, and usually does, modify the entirety of the preceding clause. This is the role it is playing in this sentence.

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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   01 May 2022, 08:11
Himalayan wrote:
Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.


(A) Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

(B) Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

(C) Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.

(D) Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.

(E) Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to sail west to see if he could reach India.


This question is part of the GMAT Club Sentence Correction : Parallelism" Revision Project.



GMATNinja, EMPOWERgmatVerbal, DmitryFarber

Can you explain why C is wrong?

And if it was instead of accepting, CC started sailing west.....would it have been correct?

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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   21 Aug 2022, 03:47
please review my understanding below:

A. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.


[It is ambiguous who didn't accept the conventional wisdom. King and Queen OR Christopher Columbus]


B. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

[do we need to compare -''accepting'' and ''was sent'' to be parallel

I understand the meaning as: ''Columbus rather than accepting the wisdom, was sent by the king

what is the ambiguity w.r.t parallelism here?]
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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   21 Aug 2022, 04:51
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Anshul1223333 wrote:
please review my understanding below:

A. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.


[It is ambiguous who didn't accept the conventional wisdom. King and Queen OR Christopher Columbus]


B. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

[do we need to compare -''accepting'' and ''was sent'' to be parallel

I understand the meaning as: ''Columbus rather than accepting the wisdom, was sent by the king

what is the ambiguity w.r.t parallelism here?]


Hello Anshul1223333,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, your understanding of the meaning error in Option A is largely correct.

Further, in Option B, the structure of the sentence seems to incorrectly suggest that the actions of "accepting" and "being sent" should be parallel.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   22 Aug 2022, 02:49
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Anshul1223333 wrote:
please review my understanding below:

A. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.


[It is ambiguous who didn't accept the conventional wisdom. King and Queen OR Christopher Columbus]


Not ambiguous. Columbus is THE (only) subject in this sentence, so Columbus is the only possible grammatical subject for the verb accept. (Moreover, Rather than accept... is an initial modifier, whose referent follows immediately—a rule that also points to "Columbus".)

The phrasing of this sentence doesn't make sense, though. The passive voice ("was sent") indicates something that was done TO / imposed UPON Columbus BY someone else—in this case, the king and queen—so that verb can't sensibly be written as something that Columbus did "rather than" doing something else.


Quote:
B. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

[do we need to compare -''accepting'' and ''was sent'' to be parallel


Yes, "rather than" should be a parallel marker. The _ing form isn't parallel to the other part, so, this one's gone.



By the way, I don't like the look of this modifier ("Rather than" + verb) at the beginning of a sentence. I'm pretty sure GMAC would do no such thing in a correct sentence.
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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   27 Aug 2022, 00:13
RonTargetTestPrep

Moreover in option D] we have '' comma + having been sent by...'' how do I understand the usage of this verb form?

RonTargetTestPrep wrote:
Anshul1223333 wrote:
please review my understanding below:

A. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.


[It is ambiguous who didn't accept the conventional wisdom. King and Queen OR Christopher Columbus]


Not ambiguous. Columbus is THE (only) subject in this sentence, so Columbus is the only possible grammatical subject for the verb accept. (Moreover, Rather than accept... is an initial modifier, whose referent follows immediately—a rule that also points to "Columbus".)

The phrasing of this sentence doesn't make sense, though. The passive voice ("was sent") indicates something that was done TO / imposed UPON Columbus BY someone else—in this case, the king and queen—so that verb can't sensibly be written as something that Columbus did "rather than" doing something else.


Quote:
B. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

[do we need to compare -''accepting'' and ''was sent'' to be parallel


Yes, "rather than" should be a parallel marker. The _ing form isn't parallel to the other part, so, this one's gone.



By the way, I don't like the look of this modifier ("Rather than" + verb) at the beginning of a sentence. I'm pretty sure GMAC would do no such thing in a correct sentence.
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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   28 Aug 2022, 21:03
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Anshul1223333 wrote:
in option D] we have '' comma + having been sent by...'' how do I understand the usage of this verb form?


There's no verb in that part. Keep in mind that __ING forms are NOT VERBS.

The requisite understanding has two parts:

• This is just a comma + __ING modifier. Like other modifiers of that type, it modifies the action of the preceding clause—which in this case is Columbus's sailing to faraway places.

• "Having been sent" refers to a PREVIOUSLY completed/performed action (i.e. before the main timeframe of the sentence) that's relevant in the main timeframe. That's exactly what is true here—Columbus sailed because he HAD ALREADY ACQUIRED royal support for the journey.
Contrast this with the normal __ING form (which would be "being sent" here). The standard __ING form represents an action IN the main timeframe, which would be nonsense here.
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Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   28 Aug 2022, 23:54
RonTargetTestPrep


what would make the parallelism right in B]

for e.g, if I write the sentence as below:

''Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus went on to sail the west...''

--do we have ''accept' and 'sent' parallel here.? Just a bit puzzled when I compare the sentence above with the structure- ''Rather than X, Y'' ??

what will be X and Y in sentence above or may be in your modified version of B]

RonTargetTestPrep wrote:
Anshul1223333 wrote:
please review my understanding below:

A. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.


[It is ambiguous who didn't accept the conventional wisdom. King and Queen OR Christopher Columbus]


Not ambiguous. Columbus is THE (only) subject in this sentence, so Columbus is the only possible grammatical subject for the verb accept. (Moreover, Rather than accept... is an initial modifier, whose referent follows immediately—a rule that also points to "Columbus".)

The phrasing of this sentence doesn't make sense, though. The passive voice ("was sent") indicates something that was done TO / imposed UPON Columbus BY someone else—in this case, the king and queen—so that verb can't sensibly be written as something that Columbus did "rather than" doing something else.


Quote:
B. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

[do we need to compare -''accepting'' and ''was sent'' to be parallel


Yes, "rather than" should be a parallel marker. The _ing form isn't parallel to the other part, so, this one's gone.



By the way, I don't like the look of this modifier ("Rather than" + verb) at the beginning of a sentence. I'm pretty sure GMAC would do no such thing in a correct sentence.
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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   29 Aug 2022, 02:31
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Anshul1223333 wrote:
RonTargetTestPrep


what would make the parallelism right in B]

for e.g, if I write the sentence as below:

''Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus went on to sail the west...''

--do we have ''accept' and 'sent' parallel here.? Just a bit puzzled when I compare the sentence above with the structure- ''Rather than X, Y'' ??

what will be X and Y in sentence above or may be in your modified version of B]

RonTargetTestPrep wrote:
Anshul1223333 wrote:
please review my understanding below:

A. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.


[It is ambiguous who didn't accept the conventional wisdom. King and Queen OR Christopher Columbus]


Not ambiguous. Columbus is THE (only) subject in this sentence, so Columbus is the only possible grammatical subject for the verb accept. (Moreover, Rather than accept... is an initial modifier, whose referent follows immediately—a rule that also points to "Columbus".)

The phrasing of this sentence doesn't make sense, though. The passive voice ("was sent") indicates something that was done TO / imposed UPON Columbus BY someone else—in this case, the king and queen—so that verb can't sensibly be written as something that Columbus did "rather than" doing something else.


Quote:
B. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

[do we need to compare -''accepting'' and ''was sent'' to be parallel


Yes, "rather than" should be a parallel marker. The _ing form isn't parallel to the other part, so, this one's gone.



By the way, I don't like the look of this modifier ("Rather than" + verb) at the beginning of a sentence. I'm pretty sure GMAC would do no such thing in a correct sentence.


Hello Anshul1223333,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in your modified version of Option B "accept" is parallel to "went on".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   29 Aug 2022, 09:10
The explanations below have eliminated the options based on Rather than and Instead of. I do not like this approach. Can anybody enlighten me on how to work on such a question.
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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   31 Aug 2022, 15:41
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Aditi31


You're not going to have much luck bypassing the instead of/rather than distinction here, because that's the only reason to choose D over C. Sure, the form of "accept" is different, but that fits with the prepositional phrase used in C. We'd never say "of accept." So we need to know that "instead of" is used to compare nouns to answer this question definitively!
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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   31 Aug 2022, 20:19
Himalayan wrote:
Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.

The GMAT would never have a question or sentence like this 😡, because the statement is absurd. People in Colombus's time did not believe that the world was flat.
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/in ... flat-earth

The question is irritating for another reason too: Many students tend to fixate on trying to understand the distinction between RATHER and INSTEAD. But understanding that difference will not really be useful in the GMAT.

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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink] New post   04 Sep 2023, 00:02
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Re: Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Ch [#permalink]
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