Sentence Correction

The concert having been finished and the audience having filtered out, the maestro relaxed in the dressing room with the impresario.

B. Because the maestro had finished the concert and because the audience had been filtered out, he relaxed in the dressing room with the impresario.

C. Because the maestro had finished the concert and because the audience had filtered out, he relaxed in the dressing room with the impresario.

D. Since the concert had finished and the audience had filtered out, the maestro had relaxed in the dressing room with the impresario.

E. The concert having been finished and the audience having been filtered out, the maestro had relaxed int he dressing room with the impresario.

Answer is C

I would go for C

IMO C

I would also go with C

C

although Since is better than Because when starting a sentence.

Guys, any take on this

Not only post your valuable IMO, but also post your rationale

Relaxed is past describing action by Mastro. This action happened after the earlier actions i.e concert had finished and audience had filtered out, to show this time gap we have to use past perfect.

Choose "C"
Issue with other choices
A--> Present perfect with past tense
B--> the use of been
D--> perfect tense for all the 3 action, this will not show any time gap but seems all the three action occurred at the same time
E--> present perfect with past perfect

Please add if I missed any thing

having + past participle

used to express actions that are finished and to show that one thing comes after
another. Furthermore, there is usually a "because” relationship between the two.

For example:
“Having eaten already, I turned down Megumi's invitation to dinner.” (correct)

So If I am not wrong, this explanation makes A the correct choice. And by using HAVING+Past Participle construction, not only we don't need use past perfect tense but we can also omit BECAUSE.

Any comments ?

logitech wrote:having + past participle

used to express actions that are finished and to show that one thing comes after
another. Furthermore, there is usually a "because” relationship between the two.

For example:
“Having eaten already, I turned down Megumi's invitation to dinner.” (correct)

So If I am not wrong, this explanation makes A the correct choice. And by using HAVING+Past Participle construction, not only we don't need use past perfect tense but we can also omit BECAUSE.

Any comments ?

I agree. But Having been finished in option A is awfully passive.

This is the reason i would eliminate this option.

Similarly in Option B Had been finished is also passive.

Options D & E can be easily eliminated because of maestro had relaxed this is the last action in the sequence, therefore simple past is needed.

We are only left with option C.

Any thoughts?

PC I think you made it all clear. But If there were no active choices, I would choose A. Do you agree ?

here is a rule:

Active voice: Had + past participle
Passive voice: Had been + past participle

Active voice: Have + past participle
Passive voice: Have been + past participle

logitech wrote:PC I think you made it all clear. But If there were no active choices, I would choose A. Do you agree ?

Indeed.

Wonderful. Thanks PC for making life easier for me.

Thanks PC

I wish everyone would contribute in this manner.

I would prefer such discussions for stupid IMOs/votes

PC- Can we use "having been..." here ( does it change the meaning)

For the moment, Keep Passive and active aside

Since we are at it , I think there is one trick everybody should know.

Whereever SINCE or EVERSINCE is used always use present perfect tense.


This trick is fool proof, blindly mark the answer. Check for yourself, any official problem.