Neither rhyme nor reason - Shakespeare

[Prateek Parekh]

Test No. express/advan-8 "From Shakespeare originally", question 6

It was a total mystery as apparently there was neither rhyme nor reason why he did it.

(a) no logical reason
(b) no real reason
(c) no particular reason
(d) no special reason

Test No. express/advan-8 "From Shakespeare originally", answer 6

It was a total mystery as apparently there was no logical reason why he did it.

Correct answer: (a) no logical reason
_________________________

please help me understand difference between the 4 options.

[Torsten]

Well, Alan Townend, the author of our tests, sometimes uses phrases that were created by Shakespeare. The phrase Neither rhyme nor reason stems from Shakespeare's As You Like It and it appears in the following conversation:

Rosalind: But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak?
Orlando: Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much.

As Alan explains in his test, the idiom neither rhyme nor reason means no logical reason.
The other three answer options in order to make you select the correct one.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary