No less an authority than Walter Cronkite has reported that half of al

Question

No less an authority than  Walter Cronkite has reported that half of all Americans never read a book.

(A) No less an authority than
(B) Nonetheless an authority
(C) Nevertheless authoritarian
(D) Not less an authority than
(E) An authority not less than

DmitryFarber · Accepted Answer

Jones105 (above, posting in 2009!) covered this quite well. The trick here is that if you don't know this idiom, you're going to be confused. "No less a (blank) than (person/entity)" means that (person/entity) is the subject of the sentence, and is (a blank) to a very high degree.

No less an authority than the author himself said that the book is not a religious allegory.   Translation: The author himself said that the book is not a religious allegory, and the author is of course a great authority on his own book.

No less an athlete than Carl Lewis has excelled through the adoption of a vegan diet.  Translation: Carl Lewis, a great athlete, has excelled through the adoption of a vegan diet.

Jones105 · Answer

A - is the best answer. It introduces the value of the person and is an accepted, yet somewhat awkward way to say it. (IMO) B - nonetheless means "in spite of" and would indicate Americans haven't read a book even though Cronkite reported on the issue C - authoritarian is an adjective that's completely unrelated to the sentence D - Not is typically used to negate something. In this case, the sentence is just using a correct, but awkward way to introduce him. E - using "an authority" would indicate someone other than Walter Cronkite, who was at least his equal. (Since we use indefinite articles to introduce previously unreferenced nouns into conversation) I hope that helps

LAKSH0328 · Answer

These kind of SCs remind me that I am not a native english speaker. This is a complete IDIOM based SC - and also not a very common IDIOM. I will prefer POE here :

(A) No less an authority than
(B) Nonetheless an authority - this looks like a continuation from some other sentence
(C) Nevertheless authoritarian - Same reason as B. Also, should have been "an authoritarian"
(D) Not less an authority than - Normally I have not seen Not used to modify noun - I think it can modify verb only- not sure though
(E) An authority not less than - looks like we are talking about some other authority and comparing with Walter Cronkite

So, that leaves us with A. Just for confirmation I googled for Idiom No less than and it looks like a legitimate idiom :
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/no+less+than

mba4viplav · Answer

This is pretty confusing. A and E seem to be right. Need some explanation

DevilDoggNC · Answer

Choice E changes the meaning of the sentence. It suggests that someone else (not cronkite but someone whose authority is no less than Cronkite's) has reported that half of Americans don't read books.

Thelegend2631 · Answer

Such a weird idiom.

Only made sense after looking at detailed explanation.

Posted from my mobile device

Bambi2021 · Answer

This idiom was new to me too.

Feels like something is missing. "No one less than Walter Cronkite" would have sounded better.

VerbalBot · Answer

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No less an authority than Walter Cronkite has reported that half of al

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No less an authority than Walter Cronkite has reported that half of al

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