<p>Q: In researching an individual’s life, the biographer must sift through facts, opinions, untruths, and ((different accounts of the same events)).</p>
<p>(A) different accounts of the same events
(B) different people telling different accounts of the same events
(C) events told in different ways by different people
(D) accounts about events that are different
(E) people that tell different accounts of events</p>
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<p>The answer is A, but when I first met the question, I had no idea how to tackle it…
So could anyone explain to me why the answer is A not the others… since I didn’t find any big problems with them…</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Parallelism.</p>
<p>Facts, opinions, untruths, and “noun”.</p>
<p>Different accounts of the same events is indeed a noun, or a noun phrase anyway, I don’t know what it’s called. So it’s grammatically in check, and also parallel to all the other nouns, so why would the answer be anything but A?</p>
<p>@SirWanksalot</p>
<p>But I believe that all other choices can meet the standard of parallelism…</p>
<p>So, is the choice A better than BCDE in any other ways?</p>
<p>I always like to completely eliminate other choices…</p>
<p>(A) different accounts of the same events -> correct
(B) different people telling different accounts of the same events -> the author sifts through different accounts of the same events, not through people.
(C) events told in different ways by different people -> passive form, not supported.
(D) accounts about events that are different -> unnecessary wordiness, answer A corrects this.
(E) people that tell different accounts of events -> again, the author sifts through different accounts of the same events, he doesn’t sift through people.</p>
<p>@SirWanksalot</p>
<p>Thanks a lot!!! Now I got it!! :)</p>
<p>C is not wrong because of passive tense; it is wrong because you don’t sift through (look through) “events” which are past experiences. You sift through the ACCOUNTS of the events, which are like the written documentation of the events.</p>
<p>^ Thank you for that correction.</p>