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simple past or past perfect

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simple past or past perfect

by Uri » Thu Apr 30, 2009 3:24 am
George’s personal diary and album formed the basis for his book about the places he had visited.
  1. the basis for his book about the places he had visited.
  2. the basis for his book regarding the places he had visited.
  3. the basis of his book about the places he visited.
  4. the basis of his book about the places which he had visited.
  5. the basis of his book about the places he had visited.

OA: [spoiler](C)[/spoiler]
I am not sure about the authenticity of the OA.
I have found this question in this forum, but would like to have some more clarification about the choices. Please justify your answer.

Can you please explain what is wrong with [spoiler](E)[/spoiler]? I can perhaps eliminate [spoiler](D)[/spoiler] because of the use of "which", as GMAT most probably prefers to use "where" to indicate location.
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by Jose Ferreira » Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:06 am
This is a great GMAT SC question.

The past perfect is used to imply that something happened in the past BEFORE something else happened in the past (using the simple past), as in:

I had packed my bags when the phone rang.

This sentence implies the packing happened first.

However, if the sentence has other context clues, then we no longer need the past perfect to tell us it happened first:

Right before the phone rang, I packed my bags.

The words "right before" tell us the time relationship, so we can put both in the simple past.

In this GMAT sentence, I feel it would require a rather large logical leap to think that George could write a book reflecting on the experiences he had in the future. Thus, answer (C) works. We may use the simple past.

Answer (E) uses the past perfect, which leaves us wondering, "He had visited these places... before what?" There is no other action in the past tense that his visits could have preceded, making the simple past preferable.

Hope that helps.
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Re: simple past or past perfect

by sudeep_ar » Fri May 01, 2009 4:04 am
Uri wrote:George’s personal diary and album formed the basis for his book about the places he had visited.
  1. the basis for his book about the places he had visited.
  2. the basis for his book regarding the places he had visited.
  3. the basis of his book about the places he visited.
  4. the basis of his book about the places which he had visited.
  5. the basis of his book about the places he had visited.

OA: [spoiler](C)[/spoiler]
I am not sure about the authenticity of the OA.
I have found this question in this forum, but would like to have some more clarification about the choices. Please justify your answer.

Can you please explain what is wrong with [spoiler](E)[/spoiler]? I can perhaps eliminate [spoiler](D)[/spoiler] because of the use of "which", as GMAT most probably prefers to use "where" to indicate location.

Isn't there a problem of using pronoun for possesive noun.
Shouldn't it be "George had visited".
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Re: simple past or past perfect

by Uri » Sun May 03, 2009 10:31 pm
Thanks Jose for the explanation!
sudeep_ar wrote:Isn't there a problem of using pronoun for possesive noun.
Shouldn't it be "George had visited".
Yes, I agree with you. But none of the answer choices give us option to rectify that. So, for this question, it is out of scope!
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by martin.jonson007 » Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:07 am
Jose Ferreira wrote:This is a great GMAT SC question.

The past perfect is used to imply that something happened in the past BEFORE something else happened in the past (using the simple past), as in:

I had packed my bags when the phone rang.

This sentence implies the packing happened first.

However, if the sentence has other context clues, then we no longer need the past perfect to tell us it happened first:

Right before the phone rang, I packed my bags.

The words "right before" tell us the time relationship, so we can put both in the simple past.

In this GMAT sentence, I feel it would require a rather large logical leap to think that George could write a book reflecting on the experiences he had in the future. Thus, answer (C) works. We may use the simple past.

Answer (E) uses the past perfect, which leaves us wondering, "He had visited these places... before what?" There is no other action in the past tense that his visits could have preceded, making the simple past preferable.

Hope that helps.

VISITED happened before FRAMED...!

So there are two events .....

HAD makes sense here...

need further explanations....!

ta
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by ayushiiitm » Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:30 am
still not clear....I think it should be e

places were visited, before he could have the diary and album....which formed the basis


Need more clarification from experts
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by sumanr84 » Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:45 am
IMO : A

I think X formed the basis for Y is more suitable than X formed the basis of Y

HAD usage is justified I feel.
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by kvcpk » Fri Jun 25, 2010 1:21 am
IMO E
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by jube » Fri Jun 25, 2010 4:45 am
can one of the instructors comment on this? is it formed the basis of OR formed the basis for?

Also, the explanation for C isn't convincing. In this particular sentence, the vists happened before he started writing his book so makes sense to use past perfect.
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by martin.jonson007 » Fri Jun 25, 2010 6:04 am
basis of / basis for ....wch is the correct IDM... dont know.. Experts can comment better..


but

one thing is clear now that

HAD is not require here...
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by dj_vinayak » Sun Jul 11, 2010 2:47 am
Jose Ferreira wrote:This is a great GMAT SC question.

The past perfect is used to imply that something happened in the past BEFORE something else happened in the past (using the simple past), as in:

I had packed my bags when the phone rang.

This sentence implies the packing happened first.

However, if the sentence has other context clues, then we no longer need the past perfect to tell us it happened first:

Right before the phone rang, I packed my bags.

The words "right before" tell us the time relationship, so we can put both in the simple past.

In this GMAT sentence, I feel it would require a rather large logical leap to think that George could write a book reflecting on the experiences he had in the future. Thus, answer (C) works. We may use the simple past.

Answer (E) uses the past perfect, which leaves us wondering, "He had visited these places... before what?" There is no other action in the past tense that his visits could have preceded, making the simple past preferable.

Hope that helps.
are we saying that the "had" in E is redundaant
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by adi_800 » Sun Jul 11, 2010 10:34 pm
Need more clarification on this one...
Experts...Please comment..
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by tomada » Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:43 pm
martin.jonson007 wrote:basis of / basis for ....wch is the correct IDM... dont know.. Experts can comment better..


but

one thing is clear now that

HAD is not require here...
I agree with Martin. The book is based on places "he visited". These visits have already occurred, so the inclusion of "had" to form "he had visited" is unnecessary.
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by debmalya_dutta » Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:12 pm
"Basis of " works perfectly fine .
for e.g. "the basis of this drink is orange juice" meaning "the most important or necessary part of something"

Are we saying that C is wrong? Prefer the tenses to be in simple past unless unless you need to differentiate the timing of 2 independent events
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by neerajbansal » Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:31 pm
diary is something which is written along with a process...usage of "had" makes it imperative that the diary or traveling happened in some sort of sequence ...which is not true...as he may have visited California ...wrote something..visited Alaska ..then wrote more in his diary....

So concurrent action cannot be shown using the past perfect ..

my2 cents.
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