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805+ Level|   Adjectives and Adverbs|         
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cledgard
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Around the World in 80 Questions (Day 10): Amidst the constant 05 Aug 2023, 11:05
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Elite097
cledgard so this is an idiom we have to remember?
Also i dont et the sequencing among the evnts that is denoted by the usage of had before every verb. Pls elaborate in detail

cledgard
Elite097
Contemplate = observe. What did the author contemplate? His latest masterpiece. There is no need for the preposition about.
"Since" refers to a specific point in time. It is used to specify the starting point of an action or a state., from a definite past time until now.
"for" is used to express the duration of that event of or state-
I have coached students since 2012. (starting point)
I have I have coached students for 10 years. (duration)
We don’t use since with periods of time
Check the Cambridge Dictionary explanation here. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/gramma ... r-or-since
The expression should be either "for the last six months" (duration) or "since six months ago" (starting point).
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"for" and "since" are not used because they are idioms, these prepositions are used according to their meaning: "for" is used to indicate a duration of time or extent of space, and "since" is used to indicate the period after a specified time in the past.

The past perfect is used when we refer to something that happened in the past before some referent in the past. We could say that is the past of the past.
In the sentence, the artist contemplated his work. Past simple is correct because it did not happen before any past reference.
On the other hand, "he had been working on" uses past perfect because this action happened before the artist contemplated his masterpiece.
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Elite097
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Around the World in 80 Questions (Day 10): Amidst the constant 14 Aug 2023, 22:24
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cledgard
Elite097
cledgard so this is an idiom we have to remember?
Also i dont et the sequencing among the evnts that is denoted by the usage of had before every verb. Pls elaborate in detail

cledgard
Elite097
Contemplate = observe. What did the author contemplate? His latest masterpiece. There is no need for the preposition about.
"Since" refers to a specific point in time. It is used to specify the starting point of an action or a state., from a definite past time until now.
"for" is used to express the duration of that event of or state-
I have coached students since 2012. (starting point)
I have I have coached students for 10 years. (duration)
We don’t use since with periods of time
Check the Cambridge Dictionary explanation here. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/gramma ... r-or-since
The expression should be either "for the last six months" (duration) or "since six months ago" (starting point).

"for" and "since" are not used because they are idioms, these prepositions are used according to their meaning: "for" is used to indicate a duration of time or extent of space, and "since" is used to indicate the period after a specified time in the past.

The past perfect is used when we refer to something that happened in the past before some referent in the past. We could say that is the past of the past.
In the sentence, the artist contemplated his work. Past simple is correct because it did not happen before any past reference.
On the other hand, "he had been working on" uses past perfect because this action happened before the artist contemplated his masterpiece.
Show more

cledgard i meant 'contemplate ' idiom not for/since

ALso if you look at the ans, the seqence presented by you is not what the correct choice represents because they have used had contemplated and also had been working on so I am not sure what is before what. Since its written he contemplated his LATEST masterpiece, which he had been working on, it seems more likely that he made the masterpiece and then contemplated about what he already made but the way its written it seems like he contemplated and worked on it at the same time which is not making sense. Moreover, then it is also not clear what sequence are they trying to establish
So pls clarify

Also doesnt make sense to say that in the middle of soemthing , something happened before that so clearly sequence cant e between the first two parts either
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