Hi,
Are these sentences natural to a native ear?
[color=blue]1. You wanted to go for lunch sometime to discuss our future projects; let me know if you are free this week and I can reserve a table somewhere.
I usually don’t get time for this kind of activities.
I would rather she took a low-paying job than taking this high intensity job, so that she can/could look after the family better.
Thanks.
I would see it like: 1)–‘go out’; 3)–’…than this high intensity one, so (that) she could…’ I believe your choice of ‘high intensity’ was deliberate.
You wanted to go for lunch sometime to discuss our future projects; let me know if you are free this week and I can reserve a table somewhere. OK. Equivalent to ‘go out for lunch’ as indicated.
I usually don’t get time for this kind of activity / hese kinds of activities.
I would rather she took a low-paying job than took this high intensity job, so that she could look after the family better.
Trying to sound a native, I would even say, “I would rather she took a low-paying, than this high intensity job,…” to avoid repetition. 
That doesn’t sound right. If you wish to avoid repetition, a ‘natural’ statement would be “I’d rather she took a low-paying job than this high intensity one.”
Sorry, but I can’t take your statement for granted.
You mean you can’t place a noun right after the two adjectives modifying it when misinterpretation is impossible? I need to be proven wrong on that one.
No, that’s not quite what I mean. You have turned a particular example into a general rule.
The object needs to be placed earlier in that sentence for it to sound natural. Otherwise you are left hanging wondering what the noun is. The ‘than’ gets in the way.
In this sentence, it would be acceptable to leave the noun until the end:
Would you rather a low-paid or high intensity job?
Thank you, Bev.
I was relying on the examples like:
Their acquaintance was singular rather than intimate [one]
The diffusion is radical rather than linear. [one]
Circumstances dictated that they played a defensive [game]rather than attacking game.
Reparations Could Widen, Rather Than Heal, Racial Rifts
Territorial animals typically respond less aggressively to neighbours than [they do] to strangers.
Why does John get the STEM job rather than Jennifer? | does]
Omittance. I believe you can see my point.
Hopefully you can also see mine now.
I would also have the same “off-sounding” problem with this sentence from your examples:
Circumstances dictated that they played a defensive [game] rather than attacking game.
I would recast to:
Circumstances dictated that they played a defensive game rather than an offensive (attacking) one.
In the other examples you provide, the object does not appear so remote from the first adjective.
[quote=“Beeesneees” Hopefully you can also see mine now.
quote]
I sure can. Grammatically, yes.
It may look strange though, but my non-native, ear doesn’t have any difficulty in interpreting that ‘a defensive rather than attacking’\‘a low-paying, than this high intensity’ part. To me, ‘a defensive-rather-than-attacking’ sounds as one. Similar to say, ‘defensive, not attacking\more defensive than attacking’ game.
Spoiled by sports people’s ‘coded’ language?..