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Using Before

by abhicoolmax » Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:14 pm
According to MGMAT SC,
The word before and after indicate the sequence of events clearly and emphatically enough to make the use of Past Perfect unnecessary.
eg. RIGHT: Laura LOCKED the deadbolt before she LEFT for work.

However, According to Aristotle SC,
RIGHT: Before John won the lottery, he had been a poor locksmith.
WRONG: Before John won the lottery, he was a poor locksmith.
also,
RIGHT: John had traveled to many different countries before he decided to settle down in New Zealand

I am now confused. What is the right usage? Should I use past perfect/past perfect continuous OR simple past when the sentence already has an emphatic preposition, such as before, indicating time previous to another past event?

Can anybody please help me understand?
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Jul 10, 2011 5:56 pm
Go with Manhattan on this one..."Laura locked the deadbolt..." is a good sentence.

I would say that both the "right" and (supposedly) "wrong" lottery sentences seem clear to me.

The past perfect works and the simple past works here.

Listen, we all want to know some solid rules that we can memorize but it is more a matter of what if clear and what is logical. Despite what we are constantly told, The GMAT is not really trying to force you to learn things about English that only English majors focus on. So if the sentence is clear that is usually a good sign.
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by abhicoolmax » Sun Jul 10, 2011 6:28 pm
David@VeritasPrep wrote:Go with Manhattan on this one..."Laura locked the deadbolt..." is a good sentence.

I would say that both the "right" and (supposedly) "wrong" lottery sentences seem clear to me.

The past perfect works and the simple past works here.

Listen, we all want to know some solid rules that we can memorize but it is more a matter of what if clear and what is logical. Despite what we are constantly told, The GMAT is not really trying to force you to learn things about English that only English majors focus on. So if the sentence is clear that is usually a good sign.
But what if I see 2 options as I listed above. Only ONE can be correct no? Aristotle book has these exact choices. You think they chose the wrong answer as correct?
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by David@VeritasPrep » Sun Jul 10, 2011 6:35 pm
No I don't think Aristotle's choice was wrong, I am saying that I think that it is a False Decision. In other words, both seem acceptable to me. No way and no need to decide.

It is like trying to make a decision between "probably" and "maybe" you really should try everything else first.

I would never want to make the decision that Aristotle mentions. Both seem good and there will be a different choice in the sentence that will allow you to not even consider this. That is why I like to see sentence correction In Context. Each answer choice usually has more than one way to distinguish.
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