The high costs to taxpayers were mostly a result of policies

Question

The high costs to taxpayers were mostly a result of policies that guarantee cotton farmers a portion of their projected revenue,  rather than of coverage paying them for damaged crops .

A rather than of coverage paying them for damaged crops
B instead of their coverage that pays for damaged crops
C as opposed to coverage paying them for damaged crops
D rather than coverage that pays them for damaged crops
E instead of coverage that pays them for damaged crop

I could make it to last two but could not identify the correct answer please help.

daagh · Accepted Answer

The high costs to taxpayers were mostly a result of policies that guarantee cotton farmers a portion of their projected revenue,  rather than of coverage paying them for damaged crops. 
This seemingly simple topic of comparison has some subtle pitfall of redundancy in one of the tempting choices. Now let’s see. 
A --- rather than of coverage paying them for damaged crops ----- 
 This is the subtle pitfall I refered to about. Here the comparison is between what were the causes of higher costs? Whether policies or coverage? If you parse the clauses somewhat carefully, you will get the following structure: 
The high costs to taxpayers were mostly a result of (policies that guarantee cotton farmers a portion of their projected revenue, rather than of coverage paying them for damaged crops.) You can see that he phrase ‘as result of’ already carries the preposition ‘of” and using ‘of’ again for coverage is redundant in A. That is why D is the preferred choice.  
B instead of their coverage that pays for damaged crops --   simple reason to dump this is the inappropriate of instead of , apart from the ambiguity of the pronoun reference of ‘their’ 
C as opposed to coverage paying them for damaged crops---  as opposed to is unidiomatic diction ;  
D rather than coverage that pays them for damaged crops –  right choice  
E instead of coverage that pays them for damaged crop - -inappropriate use of instead of”; Is it a typo that it is ‘crop’ instead of crops’?

SN30 · Answer

"rather than" shows preference of one thing or the other whereas "instead of" suggests replacement of a noun or an action noun with something else.

For example -
I’d call him a smart worker  rather than  a hard worker.
I prefer to have tea  instead of  coffee.
 
Also, please note that "instead of" is used to compare 2 nouns as of is a preposition. (refer to the example above)

Hope it makes sense.

JarvisR · Answer

Hi,
Can this be solved without using the prior knowledge of instead of /rather than?
Regards.

dojha00 · Answer

I tried to solve it using parallelism. If you look closely, you will find that : mostly a result of (policies that guarantee cotton farmers a portion of their projected revenue, rather than of coverage paying them for damaged crops ) . Policies that guarantee is only parallel with coverage that pays . ( a and c is ruled out.) Now, use of "instead of" instead of "rather than" is wrong. So, b and e ruled out.(analyse this sentence closely) Answer: D :-D

joylive · Answer

Use of double of is wrong in A
portion  of  their projected revenue, rather than  of  coverage

B, E has same error.
C unnecessarily uses participle form (progressive), not needed, keep it simple, concise and clear. 
option D removes this error.

HKD1710 · Answer

rather is preferred.
Parallelism is correct in choice D.

a result of  policies that guarantee ...... rather than    coverage that pays

Kurtosis · Answer

A rather than of coverage  paying  them for damaged crops - Incorrect. 'of' is redundant but can be used. But 'policies that guarantee' is not parallel to 'coverage paying'.
B  instead  of their coverage that pays for damaged crops - Incorrect 
C  as opposed to  coverage paying them for damaged crops - Incorrect 
D rather than coverage that pays them for damaged crops - Correct
E  instead  of coverage that pays them for damaged crop - Incorrect

Answer: D

Bunuel · Answer

VERITAS PREP OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

Solution: D

Explanation: Before looking at answer choices, you should take some time to unravel this tricky sentence. Here is the core structure of the sentence: the costs were a result of polices that guarantee the farmers THIS, rather than coverage that pays them THIS. It is easy to get lost in this sentence and try to link improper structures. In (B) and (E) the “instead of” structure is problematic because it illogically links it to the “of their projected revenue” portion before: “policies that guarantee cotton farmers a portion of revenue, instead of coverage” is completely illogical and does not contrast the policies with the coverage. (A) is more difficult to eliminate but lacks parallelism with the first portion because of the improper “paying” in place of “that pays”. Also the “of” after “rather than” is unnecessary (but could be used). In (C) “as opposed to” is an awkward choice - “as opposed to coverage paying …” - and the “paying” is again incorrect. (D) is correct as it conveys the meaning perfectly with parallel and consistent structures.

Prateek176 · Answer

Bunuel  ,  daagh

Why can't "Rather than of" structure in option A illogically link it to the “of their projected revenue” portion before??

Prateek176 · Answer

daagh  
I am still unclear why instead of is wrong?? Could you please elaborate on this further??

daagh · Answer

Let's take it this way. 'Instead of' is no more than an unbiased exchange of two choices one for the other. On the contrary, when you prefer one over the other even by some degrees, then 'rather than' become more appropriate. 
In almost all of the comparisons in GMAT, one will find that this preference is predominantly extant. Hence as a norm, GMAT goes for 'rather than' over 'instead of. ' This has more to do with the context than with generalizing as such. 
In this question, isn't there a slant toward policies of guarantee over coverage?

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The high costs to taxpayers were mostly a result of policies

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