NDA (I) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 22 of 149

Correct — B, to. When 'prefer' is followed by two noun objects, the second is introduced by 'to', giving 'He preferred death to imprisonment'. 'Prefer' already carries the comparison inside it, so it never takes 'than'.

• (a)for — 'Prefer' does not take 'for' before the rejected item; 'preferred death for imprisonment' would read as though imprisonment were the purpose of the death.
• (c)than — 'Than' belongs after a comparative form such as 'more' or 'rather'; 'prefer' is not a comparative adjective, so 'preferred death than imprisonment' is ungrammatical.
• (d)No improvement — 'Rather than' is used with 'prefer' only when two verbs are being weighed, as in 'preferred to die rather than surrender'; with the two nouns here the idiom demands 'to'.

A verb-pattern item on 'prefer X to Y', one of the verbs whose comparison is built into the verb itself.

The trap works because 'rather than' is perfectly good English elsewhere. The test is what follows the verb — two nouns force 'to', while two infinitives allow 'prefer to do A rather than do B'.

• 'Prefer' takes 'to' before the rejected item when both items are nouns or gerunds.
• Latin-derived comparatives such as senior, junior, superior, inferior and prior also take 'to' rather than 'than'.

• Assuming that any comparison can use 'than'.

Asked as a sentence-improvement item that hides a wrong preposition after a verb whose pattern is fixed.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which option best improves the underlined part — I prefer coffee <u>than</u> tea in the morning.

  • (a)to
  • (b)than that of
  • (c)for
  • (d)No improvement

  Answer(a) to — 'prefer coffee to tea' is the fixed pattern.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which option best improves the underlined part — He is senior <u>than</u> me by two years.

  • (a)to
  • (b)from
  • (c)over
  • (d)No improvement

  Answer(a) to — 'senior' is a Latin comparative and takes 'to'.