The best form of tense is simple, you should always resort to simple if possible.... Other forms make the sentence more wordy...

Enginpasa1 wrote:I need to understand the concept of past perfect, do not know when to to use it over simple past. I noticed that simple past is more common than past perfect.

# 75
Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the mhenjo-daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of Tigris and Euphrates.

a. same
b. that had flourished at the same time as had the civilizations.
c. that flourished at the same time those had
d. flourishing at the same time as those did
e. flourishing at the same time as those were

Why is C wrong? Both all civilisations were then and ceased to diminish therfore the perfect past should be used. Correct? I seem to not know the differences between simple past and perfect past. Can I get some direction please from the professionals?


ah yes..the correct answer is A

When two events happen simultaneously, we generally use the same tense for both. We use different tenses to demonstrate that events occured at different times.

In the question above, we have the time clue "at the same time", which tells us that we want the same tense for both of those actions. Since "flourished" is the simple past, we need to keep using that tense for the rest of the sentence.

hi stuart,

The concern here with the choice A is that it is comparing the florishing with civilization.this is the reason why i opted choice C which compared flurishing with flourishing.

However i am sure that choice C is also wrong becasue of the word those.

Can you please tell how to choose right answer in situations like this ?

hemanth28 wrote:hi stuart,

The concern here with the choice A is that it is comparing the florishing with civilization.this is the reason why i opted choice C which compared flurishing with flourishing.

However i am sure that choice C is also wrong becasue of the word choice.

Can you please tell how to choose right answer in situations like this ?

Hemanth, though u have asked the Qs to Stuart, I would like to mention something here. In the Qs, we are not comparing between the flourish but between the civilizations. Another point is - the correct phrase, I think, is at the same time as; but last as is missing in C. Stuart correct me if I mis-stated something!

hemanth28 wrote:hi stuart,

The concern here with the choice A is that it is comparing the florishing with civilization.this is the reason why i opted choice C which compared flurishing with flourishing.

However i am sure that choice C is also wrong becasue of the word choice.

Can you please tell how to choose right answer in situations like this ?

We're comparing flourished with flourished - when the same word would appear twice in a list, you're allowed to omit the second occurence.

So, even though the word isn't actually there, the original reads:

"that flourished at the same time as the civilizations [flourished]..."

Also, as Camitava points out, we need "as" to complete the idiom.

Another point to add is that option C (as well as D and E) contains the pronoun "those" and it lacks an antecedent. We can infer that "those" refers to civilizations, but only the singular "civilization" is present.

Rey

Cant we use those to refer to the compound subject :

civilization of Nile delta and civilization of river
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates

Stuart, could you please explain the rule for omitting the verb...

I drove better than Larry did

OR

I drove better than Larry

Bump

"that" is a pronoun which refer to the noun, and only the noun, not to the noun plus noun modifier

other pronoun, such as "it" refer to noun plus noun modifier

I read in this forum, from Ron purawell who say about "it" as above

Ron, Stuart, Stacey, Karen, pls, confirm my above understanding above.

resilient wrote:I need to understand the concept of past perfect, do not know when to to use it over simple past. I noticed that simple past is more common than past perfect.

# 75
Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the mhenjo-daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of Tigris and Euphrates.

a. same
b. that had flourished at the same time as had the civilizations.
c. that flourished at the same time those had
d. flourishing at the same time as those did
e. flourishing at the same time as those were

Why is C wrong? Both all civilisations were then and ceased to diminish therfore the perfect past should be used. Correct? I seem to not know the differences between simple past and perfect past. Can I get some direction please from the professionals?


ah yes..the correct answer is A

In A, you typed "that that." Is this a typo? Also, can you just underline (and not bold the part not underline) the part of the sentence in question and use the spoiler option? Thanks.

check grammar

"those" can not refer to "civilization". plural and singular. c,d,e, are out

"had" in B stands for nothing. B is out

Please answer to Anon's question. I have the same doubt!
Hope I have not missed the explanation for it.

Anon wrote:Cant we use those to refer to the compound subject :

civilization of Nile delta and civilization of river
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates

Stuart, could you please explain the rule for omitting the verb...

I drove better than Larry did

OR

I drove better than Larry