Sentence improvement — Fix the idiom ‘‘(none) the wiser’’ in ‘‘We were not the wiser for all this effort to explain the case to us.’’ Select the word that completes the standard expression.

Given sentenceWe were not the wiser for all this effort to explain the case to us.

Concept/ApproachThe fixed idiom is ‘‘none the wiser’’ meaning ‘‘no better informed’’ despite explanations or efforts.

Option analysisA: none — Yields the idiom: ‘‘We were none the wiser ...’’B: neither — Not used in this idiom.C: nevertheless — An adverb; does not fit the construction.D: No improvement — Leaves a non-idiomatic structure.

Common pitfallsSubstituting ‘‘not’’ in place of the fixed collocation ‘‘none the’’ breaks the idiom and sounds unnatural.

Final Answernone