Idiom: X Rather Than Y

[ddohnggo]

for the idiom 'x rather than y', can the x and y be verb phrases?

for example:
"A recent study of adults who work at a company with at least 100 employees indicates that the majority would give up their morning coffee rather than lose the ability to surf the Internet at work. "

Can this be structurally parallel with the verb phrase "give up their morning coffee (x) rather than lose the ability to surft the internet at work (y)?

or do the the x and y have to be nouns?

[StaceyKoprince]

they can definitely be verb phrases - they don't have to be nouns. The other option to get across this same meaning, "instead of," is limited to nouns, so it's more common to see "rather than" in the correct option b/c rather than has the flexibility to use verbs as well as nouns.

[taking test]

A recent study of adults who work at a company with at least 100 employees indicates that the majority would give up their morning coffee rather than lose the ability to surf the Internet at work.

a) rather than lose
b) rather than

x can = "give up their morning coffee"
y can = "lose the ability to surf"

x rather than y

[JonathanSchneider]

...unclear without the whole problem written out here, which we cannot write out here without the source.