thanhphong01 wrote:
If there were an answer "less than it had done", Could i consider it a more correct answer than the OA ??????
Tryambak's explanation above is nice. However I shall try to elaborate further on the topic:
You may use helping verbs later in a sentence to replace longer verbs or verb phrases used in the initial portion of the sentence.
Wordy: I have never played football, but he has played football.
Correct: I have never played football, but he has.
OR
Wordy: I never played football, but he played football.
Correct: I never played football, but he did.
Please note that in such cases both the instances of the verbs should generally have the same tense. The first example above uses past perfect..past perfect. The second uses simple past.. simple past.
Therefore "less than they had done" may not be a correct answer, and should be written as "less than they had risen".
Another subtle point to note:Your observation that a past perfect is a better choice than a simple past (on the basis of that the previous action happened before the latter action) may not be correct - the rising in the year ended previous quarter did not happen exclusively
before the year ended this September. To illustrate this scenario, please understand the following:
Year ended previous quarter: July, previous year----> June, this year (1st July, previous year to 30th June, this year)
Year ended this September: October,previous year ------> September, this year (1st October previous year to 30th September, this year)
There has been overlap of 9 months between the 2 periods compared - viz., October, previous year to June, this year (1st October, previous year to 30th June, this year). Therefore use of past perfect for the previous period is not correct.