A comic book industry giant, known for its popular super-powered chara

Question

A comic book industry giant, known for its popular super-powered characters,  sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended .

(A) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

(B) had sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

(C) had sued an animation studio before the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

(D) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters had ended

(E) has sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters was over

NawalDwivedi · Accepted Answer

Confused between A and D. 
In A the sequencing of events has been made quiet clear by using the word after. The action of suing took place after the production of movie ended. So Is it required to use the past perfect tense as has been done in D ?
If concision is priority , I think A is correct. D is also grammatically correct.

Discussion is open folks !!

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

A comic book industry giant, known for its popular super-powered characters,  sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended .

(A) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect.

This question describes two past actions, one preceding the other. First, production ended. Then, the comic book industry giant sued. In such cases, the first of the two actions should be in Past Perfect, and the later action should be in Past Simple.

This answer choice incorrectly describes both actions in Past Simple ( sued, ended ), which implies that they both happened at the same time, rather than one after the other.

(B) had sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect.

This answer choice incorrectly uses the Past Simple to describe the earlier of the two actions ( ended ) and the Past Perfect to describe the later action ( had sued ).

(C) had sued an animation studio before the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

Incorrect.

While grammatically correct, this answer choice changes the original meaning. Replacing  soon after  with  before  switches the order of occurrences: in the original sentence, first the production ended and only then did the comic book industry giant sue. In this answer choice, it is the other way around.

(D) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters had ended

This answer choice correctly uses the Past Perfect ( had ended ) to describe an action that had been completed before another action occurred in the past. In this case, the production  had ended  before the comic book company sued the animation studios.

(E) has sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters was over

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect.

This answer choice uses Past Simple ( was ) instead of Past Perfect to describe the first of the two actions. Moreover, it uses Present Perfect ( has sued ) instead of Past Simple to describe the later of the two actions.

sidchandan · Answer

D.  Bunuel  The comic book sued after the movie had ended. The movie ended first and then the suing happenned.

Two events in the past, the first in sequence will be past perfect and the second in sequence will be simple past.

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kantapong · Answer

sued ... after ... ended
B, C and E are eliminated due to had sued ... after ... ended (sued comes before ended)
For A and D, D is better because sued ... after ... have ended (ended comes before sued)
Ans: D

sumitkrocks · Answer

Production of a movie can not end per the intended meaning (production gets over); Eliminate A/B/C/D
 
Past perfect tense is wrong to use as Past perfect is only used to sequence the earlier of the two actions; Eliminate B/C

(E) should be correct; Not very a great construction though, but best in the lot

GyanaDash · Answer

Hi,

My analysis is as follows:

Suggestions are welcome. Thank you.

mohammadfaraaz123 · Answer

(A)  sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

Sentence makes no sense. Unable to make out which event happened first.   Eliminate

(B)  had sued  an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

Movie should end first and then he should sue. However, the sentence implies he sued before movie ended. Illogical   Eliminate

(C) had sued an animation studio before the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

He sued even before the production was ended. What?? Illogical   Eliminate

(D)  sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters had ended

Event 1 = Movie ended, Event 2= He sued. Makes sense   Keep

(E)  has  sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters was over
 Incorrect Tense   Eliminate

Answer option D imo

Sumi1010 · Answer

The actual sentence is - 
A comic book industry giant , known for its popular super-powered characters,   sued  an animation studio
 soon after 
the production of a movie  which plagiarized these characters  ended.

i.e.

The industry giant  sued  an animation studio AFTER the production of a movie  ended.

Thus, the sequence is clear with "after" (i.e. without overlapping of the the two actions) 
1. The production of the movie ended. 
2. The industry giant sued the studio.

In such cases, the usage of past-perfect tense (i.e.  had ended ) for the first event is  optional.   (as in choice D)

Choices  B, C and E  can be eliminated because "sued" is not the first action, so it can't have perfect tense.

IMO  A

IanStewart · Answer

It's a really confusingly written sentence, regardless of which answer is correct. If I was an editor and saw this sentence, I'd ask for a rewrite. I also don't know how anyone is meant to choose an answer. Using the past perfect here is fine, but is optional, so there's no basis to prefer A to D or vice versa. Even answer C seems fine to me, though it changes the meaning (to another meaning that is still logical -- it says that the publisher sued the studio, that suit was concluded somehow, and then the movie production ended). What is the source?

Archit3110 · Answer

I remember solving similar question on GC which tested this concept..
when we have a series of events that occured in the past and ended in the past , the last of the events has to be in simple past

(B)  had sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended  ; wrong use of tense had

(C)  had sued an animation studio before the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended  before usage is incorrect

(D ) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters had ended  ; here we have two events which are in past perfect which is wrong

(E)  has sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters was over  has usage is wrong

(A) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended  correct as one event occured in past and the second event is in simple past.. 
 
sued an animation studio... ended

option A is correct

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

A comic book industry giant, known for its popular super-powered characters, sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended.

(A) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

(B) had sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

(C) had sued an animation studio before the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

(D) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters had ended

(E) has sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters was over

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Anuragsharma93 · Answer

IMO C - Took me 2 mins.

Not that sure here. Tricky question ...for me..

A) A comic book industry giant, sued an animation studio  soon after  the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended. - No issues as such in this sentence , the time marker Soon After the production perfectly denotes the timing between the two actions, but i think C shows the meaning correctly. Why would they wait for the production to end ?

(B) had sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended - There are no two actions happening in the past. And if he had sued the animation studio then why did the production end ? it should have stopped in the middle...

(C)  had sued  an animation studio  before  the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters  ended  - Before the production ended the company had sued ... Now this clears the meaning issue which was present in A .. The Comic book industry Giant had sued the studio before the production of the movie ended.... And thats how they prevented the movie from being released....

(D) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters had ended ---Meaning error and tense error.

(E) has sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters was over - Not the right tense no need to have present perfect here. The action doesnt start in the past and continues in the present.

asishron29181 · Answer

A comic book industry giant, known for its popular super-powered characters,  sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended.

(D) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters had ended

D gives the correct tense usage.
Sentence talks of two sequence of events.

1. Movie being produced
2. Comic book industry giant suing animation studio.

Event 1 takes place before event 2.
Hence event 1 takes - past perfect tense
event 2- simple past

D gives us the correct construction

IMO D

Anuragsharma93 · Answer

Hi Experts.
Had a couple of Doubts in this question -
1. why isnt A the right answer ?
We already have a time marker "After" so as per my understanding simple past can be used instead of the past perfect.

2.If we are using Past Perfect then why cant we consider C ?
Is it because it changes the meaning as mentioned in original option A.
To me Meaning in C was also Logical - The Comic Book Industry Giant Sued the Animation Company BEFORE they completed the production and Hence they basically didnot wait for them to complete the production and release ..

mohankumar96 · Answer

I have the same question. I chose D because of grammatical correctness.

DmitryFarber · Answer

This problem was clearly written by someone who is still learning the rules. Often, such questions will hinge on ONE specific issue that appears to test a rule, but real GMAT problems usually have more going on, and if they do test a single rule, then the violation needs to be completely unambiguous.

In this case, there's no reason to cut A. The idea with past perfect is that we CAN ONLY use it when there are two past events, and we SHOULD ONLY use it when the order of those verbs needs to be made clear. This is very different from saying that we MUST use past perfect any time there are two past events. That is definitely not the case!

In this particular instance, we're already told that the suit occurred after production ended, so there's no need to use past perfect to clarify the order. The meaning of A is already perfectly clear, so there's no reason to choose D over A. However, it's not definitively wrong to use past perfect here, so while I'd prefer A over D, the question doesn't really have one valid answer.

Lok2209 · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

A comic book industry giant, known for its popular super-powered characters,  sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended .

(A) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect.

This question describes two past actions, one preceding the other. First, production ended. Then, the comic book industry giant sued. In such cases, the first of the two actions should be in Past Perfect, and the later action should be in Past Simple.

This answer choice incorrectly describes both actions in Past Simple ( sued, ended ), which implies that they both happened at the same time, rather than one after the other.

(B) had sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect.

This answer choice incorrectly uses the Past Simple to describe the earlier of the two actions ( ended ) and the Past Perfect to describe the later action ( had sued ).

(C) had sued an animation studio before the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters ended

Incorrect.

While grammatically correct, this answer choice changes the original meaning. Replacing  soon after  with  before  switches the order of occurrences: in the original sentence, first the production ended and only then did the comic book industry giant sue. In this answer choice, it is the other way around.

(D) sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters had ended

This answer choice correctly uses the Past Perfect ( had ended ) to describe an action that had been completed before another action occurred in the past. In this case, the production  had ended  before the comic book company sued the animation studios.

(E) has sued an animation studio soon after the production of a movie which plagiarized these characters was over

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect.

This answer choice uses Past Simple ( was ) instead of Past Perfect to describe the first of the two actions. Moreover, it uses Present Perfect ( has sued ) instead of Past Simple to describe the later of the two actions.

@bunel
how about the word `after` ?
doesnt it affect the answer choice ?

A comic book industry giant, known for its popular super-powered chara

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

A comic book industry giant, known for its popular super-powered chara

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