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Use of Past Perfect Tense

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by mjmehta81 » Wed Feb 08, 2012 6:05 pm
Before John won the lottery, he was a poor farmer.

A. won the lottery, he was a poor farmer.
B. had won the lottery, he was a poor farmer.
C. won the lottery, he had been a poor farmer.
D. won the lottery, he were a poor farmer.
E. wins the lottery, he was a poor farmer.

I think that use of 'before' shows that sequence of event, so answer should be (A), but
as per the book the answer is C. The reason mention is that as the both events take place at different time periods, earlier (was a poor farmer) shall take a past perfect tense.

Please guide.
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by karthikgmat » Thu Feb 09, 2012 4:12 am
Yes, the question is simple yet tricky. See, John won the lottery , now he is no more a poor man, but he was poor in the past until the point he won the lottery , so PAST PERFECT had been. Hope it clarifies your doubt.
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by aplavakarthik » Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:13 am
When two events occur the past you have to use past perfect tense for the first event.

Here john is poor, he won the lottery later.
Before john won the lottery, he had been (past perfect first event) a poor farmer.
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by mankey » Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:14 am
Some expert, please help on this one.

Regards.
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by mjmehta81 » Sat Feb 11, 2012 3:19 am
Hi,

Thanks to Karthiks..

As I understand the past perfect is used here to show that "being poor" is past to he "winning lottery" in past.

But is the original sentence incorrect.Manhattan GMAT cleary mentions that if sequence of the activities is brought out clearly by before or after, there is no need to go for Past Perfect.

Please can anyone try to help to reason out why the the above rule is not applicable here.

Mrudang
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by karthikgmat » Sat Feb 11, 2012 5:12 am
thats a good question mjmehta,

but does the comma make any change in the tense, from past(as per you) to past perfect?
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by GmatKiss » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:53 am
IMO: A
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by mjmehta81 » Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:52 am
Hi,

I am not still sure... I want to agree with Karthik but not able to because of RULES set out by two different 'GOOD' books...

If some would like to give their view on this, it would be helpful.

Regards,

Mrudang Mehta
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