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Difficulty: Very hardIdiomatic Word Choice

When designing long-term storage protocols, digital archivists must weigh the costs of active maintenance against the risks of data degradation. For many of these professionals, storing raw data on physical magnetic tape drives is preferable than relying solely on cloud-based servers, which remain vulnerable to sudden service interruptions.

Which choice is the most grammatically correct and idiomatic replacement for the underlined portion?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. preferable toAnswer
  3. C
    preferable over
  4. D
    preferable from

Answer

The correct choice is 'preferable to' because the adjective 'preferable' requires the preposition 'to' to form a standard idiomatic comparison.
The adjective 'preferable' is idiomatically followed by the preposition 'to' when making comparisons. The expression 'preferable to' is the standard grammatical construction used to show that one choice is favored over another.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the word establishing the comparison in the underlined portion of the sentence.
The sentence uses the adjective 'preferable' to compare storing raw data on physical tape drives with relying on cloud-based servers.
Determining the word that initiates the comparison is necessary to identify which idiomatic preposition must accompany it.
2
Select the preposition that idiomatically completes the phrase containing 'preferable'.
The correct preposition is 'to', making the correct phrase 'preferable to'.
Although colloquial English frequently uses 'than' or 'over', formal standard English requires 'to' when using 'preferable' for comparison.

Key Concept

Idiomatic Preposition Collocation
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Topics

Idiomatic Word Choice

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