Rather than usage

Question

Hi Mike!
 
Rather than accept the throne of Kapilavastu, Lord Buddha went towards the path of complete awareness to see whether he could achieve a state of enlightenment, having been sent by his inner instincts.
My doubt is 
Rather than accepting
OR
Rather than accept

And please explain the parallel structure "X rather than Y" applied in the following conditions:
Also, please put the words that can be dropped(optional words) in bold face.

He studies in the night rather than in the morning.
He likes to study in the night rather than to sleep in the night.
He likes studying in the night rather than sleeping in the night.

He studies in the night rather than sleep? in the night.
He studied in the night rather than sleep? in the night.
He will study in the night rather than sleep? in the night.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear tushain , I'm happy to respond my friend. :-)

First of all, this is an issue of Parallelism, and in particular, what words we can omit in parallel. See: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/dropping-c ... -the-gmat/ In the first sentence, the verb " accept/accepting " is parallel to what in the main clause? It's parallel to the full verb " went ," so we need the full verb " accept ." (2) He studies in the night rather than in the morning . Perfect as is. (3) He likes to study in the night rather than to sleep . Drop " in the night ." (4) He likes studying in the night rather than sleeping . Drop " in the night ." Both #3 and #4 are grammatically correct, but the infinitive in #3 sounds a bit awkward, and the gerunds in #4 sound more natural. Also, the phrase " at night " would sound more natural and less stilted than " in the night ." My friend, I am going to ask you, in the future: please DO NOT make up your own sentences for examples. You should be reading --- outside reading to improve your Verbal skills. See: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-reading-list/ Pull examples from there or from official question sources. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

tushain · Answer

thanks Mike.. I am almost done with the basics.. I will now do the official questions as you suggested..
regards.

tushain · Answer

https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3218

That the Fifth Lateran Council (1512 – 1517), had it addressed the growing concerns of reformers within the Catholic Church rather than simply shoring up its own political prerogatives with respect to the monarchies of Western Europe, could have avoided the series of events that led to the Protestant Reformation still causes regret among modern Western Christian thinkers.

Mike, why shoring has been used here? i think shore is parallel to addressed.

Hope you say that this is a mistake..

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear tushain , This is in a gray area. Yes, " shore " would be perfect parallelism, but this variant would be acceptable. This is much more subtle than anything you would need to know for the GMAT. Mike :-)

tushain · Answer

Roger that. :D

Rather than usage

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