The young man was surprised to find that his experience as a tutor

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION


• HIGHLIGHTS

Parallelism
The main concept tested here is parallelism.

Parallelism often seems as if it revolves around parts of speech.
But parallelism is also required to keep logical meaning straight.
This question makes "logical parallelism" easier to see.

After a quick scan of the answer choices, I see that our task is to match like with like.

Possibilities

We really have only two possibilities:
1) the tutor himself (the person) was the basis for the protagonist (the person), or
2) the experience of the tutor was the basis for the experience of the protagonist.

THE PROMPT

• a specific experience cannot be the basis for an entire character or person such as this protagonist
ELIMINATE A

• the tutor's experience cannot be used AS the protagonist
→ an experience cannot be a person
• having been used is the wrong verb tense.
That construction is called a perfect participle, and it usually conveys that one event has finished right before another starts.
The perfect participle often connotes causality: Having studied for hours, the aspirant could no longer concentrate and went for a walk.
The correct verbs are either simple past (was used) or past perfect in passive voice (had been used).
→ The jargon doesn't matter. Just understand that the having been used is inappropriate in this context.
• In reported speech, when find is short for find out, then find is usually followed by that
ELIMINATE B

• similar to B, but even more in need of "that" because the sequence is clear.
-- this sentence is reported speech in which some verbs must be followed by that
-- the verb find is a short form of find out. Both are idiomatically followed by THAT
ELIMINATE C

• Just as in option A, an experience cannot be the basis for a whole person
• timing is off in this option because "being used" sounds as if his experience was still being used when he found out
• that -- because "being used" is in the wrong tense, it's hard to know whether we need a that, but regardless, its logic is fatal.
ELIMINATE D

• this logic makes sense, unlike that in the other options. One thing, experience as a tutor, acts as the basis for a similar other thing, events in a life.
experience as a tutor → → events in the life of the protagonist
• past perfect is used correctly to show the "past of the past."
We need one event in simple past (was surprised), or a time stamp to mark off that discrete past
Whatever comes before that is written in past perfect, which is formed by HAD + BEEN + participle (verbED)
Had been used, in other words, tells us about what happened before the young man was surprised

The best answer is E.

NOTES
This question is not easy.
Some options have verb tense errors.
Some options have reported speech errors.
Some options don't match like thing to like thing (that is, some options do not match person to person or experience to experience).

If splits are not quickly evident, don't worry.
Some questions will take longer.
The logic in A, B, and D is not correct.
Between C and E, if you can't articulate what is wrong with C, see whether you can find something wrong with E. No? Then (E) is the answer.

COMMENTS

I am glad to see people grappling with hard questions.
Reasoning is often good even if answers are not correct.

If other aspirants want to post, you are hereby invited to do so.
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Kudos to all.