The extraordinary diary of William Lyon Mackenzie King, prime minister

Hey All,

I got a private message to take this one on, so here I am. Feel free to PM me any time with questions!

The extraordinary diary of William Lyon Mackenzie King, prime minister of Canada for over twenty years, revealed that this most bland and circumspect of men was a mystic guided in both public and private life by omens, messages received at séances, and signs from heaven.

(A) that this most bland and circumspect of men was a mystic guided in both public and
ANSWER: No problem here. "Guided" is a past participle opening up a phrase modifying "mystic". The sentence makes the most sense when we leave parallelism for within this modifying phrase, as opposed to trying some kind of parallelism out side of it (i.e. "was a mystic AND also guided...")

(B) that this most bland and circumspect of men was a mystic and also guided both in public as well as
PROBLEM: The parallel should be "both X and Y", not "both X as well as Y". Also, "a mystic" is not parallel to "guided". Also, there's no reason to use "also" there. Just "and" would be okay.

(C) this most bland and circumspect of men was a mystic and that he was guided in both public and
PROBLEM: "was a mystic" is nor parallel to "that he was guided". If you're going to have "that" after the "and", you need to have had another "that" before the first parallel element.

(D) this most bland and circumspect of men was a mystic and that he was guided in both public as well as
PROBLEM: Same as above, with the "As well as" issue from B.

(E) this most bland and circumspect of men to have been a mystic and that he guided himself both in public as well as
PROBLEM: Same as D.

As for the question about "life" versus "lives", I would agree with those who say it really isn't worth agonizing over issues that aren't tested, particularly one-word idiomatic issues. For what it's worth, I think that this construction is awkward but necessary. The point is that he was guided in both his public life and his private life by a certain set of rules. The word "lives" opens the odd possibility of multiple versions of each.

Hope that helps!

-t

"revealed that" is necessary, out C D E.
Between A and B, A is more coincise and less wordy. B moreover changes the meaning "mystic guided" is not the same as "mystic and also guided", the idiom "both" is used in this form: both x and y, Not both x as well as y.
IMO A

A is correct.

Thanks for the great explanation above.

I just want to add a small reason why C, D, E are out. Because the structure is not parallel: The diary reveal X.. and that Y. The correct idiom is "reveal that X.... and that Y"

A is correct for using idiom both X and Y.

Hope it helps a little bit.

Choice A is best. All of the other choices present errors in coordination or parallelism and also confusingly suggest that King's being a mystic and being guided... by omens... were separate matters. In addition, these choices contain errors in grammar and idiom. Choice B ungrammatically uses and also to link the noun mystic and the past participle guided. In choices C and D, that is required to introduce the clause x was a mystic if that introduces the second clause, he was guided.... In choice E, to have been a mystic and that he guided...are not parallel. Finally, B, D, and E use the unidiomatic both x as well as y instead of both x and y. Hence, A is the answer.

My process of elimination:-

Idiom tested -> both...and... -> Eliminate B, D and E

Between C and A, C has parallelism error.

A is our answer.

I have question about sentence "this most bland and circumspect of men was a mystic". It is compound sentence. Shouldn't it be this most bland and circumspect of men WERE.?

No, the sentence is not talking about multiple MEN, and the subject is not MEN.
(Seems this question was never answered)

The sentence is talking about one man, and the subject is "THIS most bland and circumspect of men".
THIS is always singular.
"OF MEN" is a prepositional phrase; the subject of any sentence will not be in a prepositional phrase. We can ignore prepositional phrases when we're trying to find out whether the subject is singular or plural.

"THIS most bland and circumspect of men" means "this really bland and circumspect man".

Posted from my mobile device
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Hello AliciaSierra,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the subject that the verb "was" acts upon is the pronoun "this"; the noun "men" is just part of the modifier phrase "most bland and circumspect of men".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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