rather than用法详解.doc

Hi,Mr Roger. wait for your answers1）Rather than _himself at home,he hung out with his friends yesterday. A.relax B.relaxed C relaxing2)Why didnt you ask for help,rather than _to do it yourself?A.trying B.tried C.try3)He wants a good rest rather than_himself on weekends.A.busy B.busying C.busies4)Yesterday he stayed at home rather than_out with his friends.A.hung B.hanging C.hang5)Some people do often imitate others rather than _ themselves.有些人经常模仿他人而不去做真正的自己。A.being B.be C.are6)Rather than _the redundant segments into one long movie, which extends its download time, simply loop the single, compact segment.不必把多个片段串成一个长电影，这样只会延长下载时间，仅仅循环单个简化的片段即可。A.string B stringing7)Strengthen your ability to confront new problems, rather than _every time.A.win B to win C winningThe grammar books say thatrather than is a conjunction ,so my choices for the above go as follows(but im not sure whether they are right or wrong,please tell me why in detail,millions of thanks !):1. Its A, the reason being that the verb in the first clause has to be parallel (match) the one in the second clause. Also, we dont often say (“relax oneself”), although uneducated people occasionally do, so it should be “Rather than relax at home,” HOWEVER, having said that, grammarians say that the gerundial form (“-ing”) can be used in place of the infinitive, in these cases, BUT, the guide in this case is whether it is idiomatic (sounds natural to a native speaker) AND C. just does not sound natural. Got that?2. Here, what I just said (above) still applies, and C. (which is parallel) sounds better, but only slightly, and A. is also acceptable.3. Here B. sounds correct but the sentence itself sounds utterly and totally ridiculous. So, I would say “none”. I would say something like, “He needs a good rest, rather than trying to busy himself on weekends.”4. Here, it should be C. but that doesnt a little unnatural, so people might say B. but that also sounds ridiculous for some reason. Most people would probably say “Yesterday he stayed at home instead of hanging out with friends,” because “hang” for some reason does not sound natural.5. This is a thoroughly stupid sentence because both A. and B. sound odd. More common usage might have it: “Some people often do imitate others, instead of just trying to be themselves.” Remember Dr Rogers ruling in this case: Just because some crazy old English teacher, who has written yet another grammar book, tells you that (theoretically) it is possible to say X, that does not mean that you should use it or that many people do. My job here at 21st C is party to explain to people just what is commonly accepted usage (even if its modern slang).6. A. because of the reason given above.7. Its not a very good sentence. A person might think (because of “to confront”) that B. is the answer but grammatically it doesnt seem to work and it sounds funny. A. also sounds odd, but it might be the intended answer. But C. in fact sounds more natural. Still, none of them sounds right. Most likely, a native speaker would say, “Improve your ability to confront new problems, instead of trying to win every time.” The “trying to” is important because of the first clause, meaning it leaves the future open to question. Remember what I said above, just because a sentence can be written the way this one is (by some lunatic professor) does not mean anyone would use it.True, “rather than” is a conjunction, therefore the “-ing” form should not be used, but it also seems to function as an adverb, perhaps this is the source of the confusion. In a