请问什么情况下用rather than doing？

Question

Rather than filling up before a night of partying，significant numbers of students refuse to eat all day before consuming alcohol. 这句话中，为啥是用rather than doing 而不是 rather than to do？

Answer 1

你好，该句句意为:
许多学生在喝酒前整天都不吃东西，而不是在一夜聚会前填饱肚子。
rather than置于句首，后一般不接to do。这里的rather than至逗号前内容作状语，修饰后面正给句子，相当于非谓语动词作状语，和正常语序下的"不是……而是"的结构还是有区别的。
一般来说rather than doing用于描述主体现在状态的情况，比如:
He is engaged in writing rather than reading a newspaper.这里就不能用to read。