Quote:
Typically, people think of genius, whether it manifests itself in Mozart composing symphonies at age five or Einstein's discovery of relativity, as having a quality not just of the supernatural but also they are eccentric.
A. as having a quality not just of the supernatural but also they are eccentric.
B. as having two qualities, being that they are both supernatural as well as eccentric
C. as having a quality not just of the supernatural but also of the eccentric
D. as having a quality not just of the supernatural but also another quality, that is, eccentricity
E. as it has two qualities, not only supernatural but as well eccentric
Error Analysis:
1. Sentence uses the idiom "not only X but also Y" but does maintain a proper parallel structure as "of the supernatural", a prepositional phrase, is not parallel to "they are eccentric", which is a clause.
Process of Elimination:
A. Wrong. As explained above.
B. Wrong. "both" requires "and" and not "as well as". Anyway, "and" and "as well" can't be used interchangeably. Also, this option incorrectly uses "being".
C. Correct.
D. Wrong. This option is wordy and does not maintain parallelism.
E. Wrong. Correct idiom is "not only X but also Y. This option uses the incorrect idiom "not only X but as well as Y". Also, "it" changes the intended meaning of the sentence.