Select the most appropriate option that can substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. To the general public, William was best known as a crusader for peace and as an admired critic about social, political and ethical subjects.

Correct — D. Two prepositions sit inside one underlined segment, and the easier of them cuts the field first.

Crusader takes for before the cause fought for: a crusader for peace. That alone removes about peace and in peace.

The second slot marks subject matter. English marks the field a commentator covers with on — an authority on constitutional law, a writer on economics — and that is the reading option (d) keeps: an admired critic on social, political and ethical subjects.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  for peace and as an admired critic by — It keeps the correct crusader for peace but ends in by, which marks an agent or a means. A critic by subjects names nobody doing anything, so the topic goes unmarked.
• (b)
  about peace and as an admired critic about — crusader about peace is not English. The cause a crusader fights for takes for, so this option breaks the first half of the segment to fix nothing in the second.
• (c)
  in peace and as an admired critic about — in peace means undisturbed, as in rest in peace. It describes a state rather than a cause, so it changes what the sentence says about William.

When one underlined segment contains two prepositions, treat it as two tests and start with the one you are surer of.

Here crusader for is a fixed collocation, and applying it first leaves only two options standing. The topic-marking preposition then decides between them.

That order matters because a candidate who starts at the second preposition can talk themselves into an option whose first half is already broken — which is exactly what options (b) and (c) are built to catch.

Key facts

• Crusader takes for before the cause, as in a crusader for peace and a crusader for reform.
• On marks the subject matter a writer, critic or authority deals with, as in an authority on medieval history.
• In peace is an adverbial meaning undisturbed and never names a cause.

Common traps

• Settling the second preposition and forgetting to check that the option still says for peace.
• Choosing about because it feels like the natural word for a topic, when the fixed marker here is on.
• Reading in peace as a stylistic variant of for peace rather than a different meaning.

No directly related past PYQ was found.