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Each of the vegetables in the store had been washed with 03 Mar 2022, 03:54
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SUV0508
Not satisfied with your explanation since in Aristotle, it is clearly mentioned that if phrases like "before"/previously etc. is explicitly mentioned in the sentence then there is no need to use a past perfect. However, we can still use a past perfect if we want to
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There are numerous official sentences, wherein GMAT uses past perfect, despite the presence words such as previously.

In the 1940s popular magazines in the United States began to report on the private lives of persons from the entertainment industry, whereas previously these publications had featured articles on individuals in business and politics.
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Each of the vegetables in the store had been washed with 03 Mar 2022, 05:13
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I read through all the solutions presented here, but I still don't exactly understand why the presence of 'before' in B does not preclude the use of past perfect here.

Can someone please explain this!

Hi

Let me try to address your query.

A past perfect tense is used when there are two events occurring in the past, to refer to the earlier of those two events. Let us plug in answer option (B) into the sentence and examine it:

Each of the vegetables in the store was washed with vegetable wash before it was sold.

As we can clearly see, there are two events happening in the past tense:

Earlier event: washed with vegetable wash
Later event: was sold

We need to use the past perfect tense to refer to the earlier event. Hence, "washed with vegetable wash" needs to be preceded by "had been".

Hope this clarifies.

Not satisfied with your explanation since in Aristotle, it is clearly mentioned that if phrases like "before"/previously etc. is explicitly mentioned in the sentence then there is no need to use a past perfect. However, we can still use a past perfect if we want to
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Hello SUV0508,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, as you have mentioned, the use of the past perfect tense alongside words such as "before" is not incorrect; it is merely redundant, and redundancy is not enough to disqualify an answer choice on the GMAT. Redundancy should only be taken into account to differentiate between multiple error-free answer choices.

We hope this helps.

All the best!
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Each of the vegetables in the store had been washed with 15 Jul 2022, 00:38
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GMATNinja can you please help us out here
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Each of the vegetables in the store had been washed with 15 Jul 2022, 07:20
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I chose B coz of the presence of before. this word clearly indicates which thing happened first. I'm not sure why D is the answer, pls help!
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Each of the vegetables in the store had been washed with 25 Sep 2023, 04:00
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Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

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