Verb tense question

I have a question.

His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.

A) in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperate areas.
B) in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas.
C) when great ice sheets existed where there were areas now temperate.
D) when great ice sheets had existed in currently temperate areas
E) when great ice sheets existed in areas now what are temperate.

The correct answer is B and the solution told us that we should use past "existed" rather than "had existed". Why is that? I thought "great ice sheets..." happened before "led Louis Agassiz". Since they used "led" instead of "lead", we should use past perfect tense to express that "great ice sheets..." happened before "led Louis Agassiz".

-Steven

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by [email protected] » Mon Jan 27, 2014 1:26 pm

Hi steven7dong,

While you will see that specific verb rule (using "had" when addressing two past events), and it's tempting to try to apply it here, the rule doesn't quite match the structure of this SC. Since "the concept of an age..." is an idea that is not restricted to one moment in the past (the idea still exists today), the past perfect tense doesn't apply. Also, answer A has a problem: the redundant phrase "now currently"; the sentence doesn't need both of those words.

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Rich

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