The reports from the Department of Commerce indicated that the economy had grown at an annual rate much higher than most economists had predicted.
A) had predicted.
B) predicted
A) had predicted.
B) predicted
We use the past perfect when we need to put an event two steps into the past.tacosychelas wrote:The reports from the Department of Commerce indicated that the economy had grown at an annual rate much higher than most economists had predicted.
A) had predicted.
B) predicted
In this sentence, the reports "indicated", which is already the past tense. So, we need to decide if the economists made their predictions before the reports, during the reports or after the reports.
The reports were written after the economists made their predictions, so the predictions need to be in a tense earlier than the simple past: choose (a) had predicted.
