one question on Power prep TC

[judykiki85]

Hello,

I have a question on one of the TC from power prep.
It is "It is his dubious distinction to have proved what nobody would think of denying, that Romero at the age of sixty-four writes with all the characteristics of ___________"

a. maturity
b. fiction
c. inventiveness
d. art
e. brilliance

And the answer is A but I don't understand where in the sentence it gave us the clue for the answer to be maturity.
Because I think brilliance would also work so I am not sure why is has to be maturity :( Is it simply because he is 64 years old? So we are supposed to assume that he is mature?
Can you please explain to me which is the clue for this question? Thank you very much.

[tommywallach]

I have a question on one of the TC from power prep.
It is "It is his dubious distinction to have proved what nobody would think of denying, that Romero at the age of sixty-four writes with all the characteristics of ___________"

Hey Judy,

So you have to pay attention to the details of the sentence. It says that the guy proved "what nobody would think of denying." In other words, the person in question has said something very obvious about Romero. We can very easily deny that an old writer is brilliant (everybody has an opinion on brilliance), but it would be tough to argue that he isn't mature, given that he's sixty-four.

Hope that helps!

-t

[judykiki85]

Hi Tommy,

Thank you for the explanation.
I think I can understand this sentence better now.
But what I still don't understand is the first part of the sentence, "it is his dubious distinction" What is it really referring to? What is dubious about his statement that Romeo writes with maturity?
I don't understand what is referring to as dubious in this sentence.
Could you please explain this to me as well?

I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you

[tommywallach]

Hey Judy,

It's an idiom. One of the meanings of distinguish/distinction is "make oneself prominent and worthy of respect through one's behavior or achievements". So a "distinction" in this usage is something you've done to make yourself worth of respect.

A DUBIOUS distinction is a play on this meaning. It means that you've made yourself known for something, but then thing you're known for is actually BAD.

For example, "Houston has the dubious distinction of being the smoggiest city in America."

Make sense?

-t

[judykiki85]

Hi Tommy,

Thank you very much for the explanation!
I can finally understand it 100%, I didn't know that was an idiom!
I greatly appreciate your help on this.

[tommywallach]

Glad to help!

-t