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Past perfect use

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by abhijeetsinghai » Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:10 pm
George’s personal diary and album formed the basis for his book about the places he had visited.

• the basis for his book about the places he had visited.
• the basis for his book regarding the places he had visited.
• the basis of his book about the places he visited.
• the basis of his book about the places which he had visited.
• the basis of his book about the places he had visited.

I am confused whether correct idiom is "basis of" or "basis for". Practically I have seen both the usage.Also, Please tell me which is better here:past perfect or simple past.
Thanking YOu

OA: C
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Re: Past perfect use

by x2suresh » Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:37 pm
abhijeetsinghai wrote:George’s personal diary and album formed the basis for his book about the places he had visited.

• the basis for his book about the places he had visited.
• the basis for his book regarding the places he had visited.
• the basis of his book about the places he visited.
• the basis of his book about the places which he had visited.
• the basis of his book about the places he had visited.

I am confused whether correct idiom is "basis of" or "basis for". Practically I have seen both the usage.Also, Please tell me which is better here:past perfect or simple past.
Thanking YOu

OA: C
past perfect tense is not required here.

Past perfect tense is used to indicate that one action occurred before another action in the past. In other words, past perfect tense indicates the first of the two actions.*


Not sure about "basis for" and "basis of"
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by sjd00d » Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:56 pm
IMO A. I think basis for is the right idiom and we should use "about" and not "regarding" in this case. Unfortunately don't have rules to prove/disapprove my assertion, its just that A sounds right.
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by yash_agg2001 » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:13 pm
x2suresh wrote:
abhijeetsinghai wrote:George�s personal diary and album formed the basis for his book about the places he had visited.

� the basis for his book about the places he had visited.
� the basis for his book regarding the places he had visited.
� the basis of his book about the places he visited.
� the basis of his book about the places which he had visited.
� the basis of his book about the places he had visited.

I am confused whether correct idiom is "basis of" or "basis for". Practically I have seen both the usage.Also, Please tell me which is better here:past perfect or simple past.
Thanking YOu

OA: C
past perfect tense is not required here.

Past perfect tense is used to indicate that one action occurred before another action in the past. In other words, past perfect tense indicates the first of the two actions.*


Not sure about "basis for" and "basis of"

for "basis of" & "basis for", you can refer to below link:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/bas ... t8134.html

Can someone please explain why use of past perfect is wrong?
There are two activities: 1) He visited some places 2) These places now form the basis for his book

Activity 1 must occur before activity 2.
Please explain where am I missing? Thanks in advance
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by hardik.jadeja » Tue Jun 22, 2010 9:44 pm
yash_agg2001 wrote: for "basis of" & "basis for", you can refer to below link:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/bas ... t8134.html

Can someone please explain why use of past perfect is wrong?
There are two activities: 1) He visited some places 2) These places now form the basis for his book

Activity 1 must occur before activity 2.
Please explain where am I missing? Thanks in advance
This post should help you with tense part: https://www.beatthegmat.com/simple-past- ... tml#145669

But I am little confused, because the link you provided says that the correct idiom is "X formed the basis for Y". If we go by what Emily said, the correct sentence should have been..

George's personal diary and album formed the basis for his book about the places he visited.
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by diebeatsthegmat » Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:50 pm
abhijeetsinghai wrote:George�s personal diary and album formed the basis for his book about the places he had visited.

� the basis for his book about the places he had visited.
� the basis for his book regarding the places he had visited.
� the basis of his book about the places he visited.
� the basis of his book about the places which he had visited.
� the basis of his book about the places he had visited.

I am confused whether correct idiom is "basis of" or "basis for". Practically I have seen both the usage.Also, Please tell me which is better here:past perfect or simple past.
Thanking YOu

OA: C
I eliminate all sentence with only small mistake
A/ the basic for his book about the places he had visisted.
i dont think we should use past perfect tense for an action which happened and finished in the past
past tense is preferred.
thus we also eliminate B. D and E
E left/
and about " basis for" or basic of? i still see they use both
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by jonathan123456 » Thu Jun 24, 2010 6:23 pm
I think Past Perfect needs to there.
Any explanations?

IMO E
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by Domnu » Thu Jun 24, 2010 9:06 pm
Past perfect, according to the tense link, isn't necessary due to the context clues present. But the basis for vs. basis of link provides contradictory evidence. Are you sure the OA is C?
Have you wondered how you could have found such a treasure? -T
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by martin.jonson007 » Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:09 am
Expert's take :

==================================================================================
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 from Experts.......!

ta
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