<p>According to no less of an authority than was Parkman, the most momentous event in the history of colonial North America was the expulsion of the French.</p>
<ul>
<li>less of an authority than was</li>
<li>less an authority than</li>
</ul>
<p>The second choice is the correct answer. Is there anything wrong with the first choice or is it just too wordy?</p>
<p>mmm yeah i would like to know too… where’s this question from?</p>
<p>This is a very bad question because it tests an idiom that does not conform with standard reasoning. (The SAT is a reasoning test.) Reasonably, if you tried to break it down, “no less an authority than X” means “an authority who is no less credible than X is,” in which case the thing being cited (as the subject) is a person who is equal to X, and not X itself.</p>
<p>The idiom “no less than X,” on the other hand, refers to X itself. It means “this very important person” (where X is that person): “This piece of information is a fact. You should trust it, because [no less than Dr. Locke] said so.” The idiom (in brackets) essentially means [the very important Dr. Locke].
… because Dr. Locke, who is very important, said so. …
You can insert a noun after “no less”: for example, “no less an authority than Dr. Locke” (meaning something like “the very credible/authoritative Dr. Locke”); and “no less a legend than John Lennon” (meaning something like “the very legendary John Lennon”). This idiom probably sounds very foreign to you (as it does to me a little bit), which is why I think this question is horrible.</p>
<p>The original form “no less of an authority than was Parkman” is simply not the idiom, so it is not correct. It does not make grammatical sense either.</p>
<p>I think Crazy might be over-thinking the issue in this one : ““no less an authority than X” means “an authority who is no less credible than X is,” in which case the thing being cited (as the subject) is a person who is equal to X, and not X itself.”</p>
<p>It could mean this, of course, but not absolutely necessarily.</p>
<p>To see no less in another sense meaning “it is surprising to me” try [no</a> less - Idioms - by the Free Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.](<a href=“No less]no - Idioms by The Free Dictionary”>No less - Idioms by The Free Dictionary)</p>
<p>The part of the post that you quoted isn’t the correct explanation; it’s just the reasoning-based perspective that one might take when trying to interpret the phrase. It is wrong; the part after that in my post is the explanation. This is the idiom: <a href=“No less than[/url] - Idioms by The Free Dictionary”>No less than</a></p> - Idioms by The Free Dictionary;
<p>Gotcha now. I think we really agree, then. There are situations where the quoted reasoning could apply, just not in this particular question.</p>
<p>I see we also agree on our sources.</p>