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Hi,The big question, of course, is how well a multiple-choice test can help screen for the ethereal mix of scientist and humanist and spiritualist that makes a good doctor. That is uncharted territory.What does the underlined part mean?The test will help produce a well-proportioned mix of something.  And the mix consists of scientist, humanist and spiritualist that makes a good doctor.  Is this what it means?Thank you in advance.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

That's right, and 'ethereal' tells us that the mix formula is subtle and hard to quantify.

KrisBlueNZ · Answer

The test will not PRODUCE those qualities; a test can only TEST FOR or SCREEN FOR qualities that already exist in the person taking the test.
The sentence is implying that a multiple choice test is a crude way of testing for the subtle character attributes that make a person a good doctor, and that using such a simple test to test for these qualities is "uncharted territory", i.e. hasn't been done before.
The "ethereal mix[ture] of scientist, humanist and spiritualist" refers to the qualities that make a person a good doctor, as you said. A good doctor must be a combination (MIX or MIXTURE) of those three things: scientist, humanist and spiritualist. These are subtle qualities (attributes, character traits) that may not be easy to identify in people through the use of a crude multiple choice test.

Jooney · Answer

Thank you for your answer, Mr. M.

Jooney · Answer

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation, Kris.  It was a great help!

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