Georges personal diary and album formed the basis for his

Question

George’s personal diary and album formed  the basis for his book about the places he had visited.

(A) the basis for his book about the places he had visited.

(B) the basis for his book regarding the places he had visited.

(C) the basis of his book about the places he visited.

(D) the basis of his book about the places which he had visited.

(E) the basis of his book about the places he had visited.

C 
Please explain why past perfect is not needed here. I think the he visited the places first, so we need a past perfect to show order. What is the correct Idiom “basis for” or “basis of”.
This is my first verbal post please pardon any mistakes.
Source: Online website
Thanks

prabir2001 · Answer

"basis of" is Correct.
Use of simple past tense is preferred over past perfect as "places he visited" describes the content of the book (acting as adjective).
However, if there were another verb which described the chronology of the event, past perfect would have been a better choice. E.g.
"the basis of his book about the places which he had visited before he got married".

Hope this helps.
Prabir

Scrat · Answer

Nice explanation Prabir
kudos

TommyWallach · Answer

Hey Prabir,

Well explained. One quick thing to add, just to make it very clear. You can only use the past perfect tense if you HAVE ANOTHER VERB ALREADY IN THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE (and that action would have to occur AFTER the action in the past perfect tense). Prabir's example had this, but he didn't quite explain it in direct enough terms. Otherwise, great work!

-tommy

prabir2001 · Answer

Thanks Tommy...

Happy GMATing guys

seekmba · Answer

Hi All,

As per Tommy's explanation.....I interpreted the sentence as follows......

......album  formed  the basis about the places he had  visited

formed  which is a verb is in past tense and  visited  (another verb) happened before the  album formed the basis  and hence I thought the answer should be "places he had visited"

Please help me understand what is wrong in my interpretation and if I need a thought readjustment here.

TommyWallach · Answer

Hey Seekmba,

Hmm. You're absolutely right, and that does make this a tougher question that it looks. I suppose the only argument you could make is that the action of "forming" is nebulous. When did they form the basis? It could have been while he was traveling. But I wonder now where this question is from, because I do think a stronger case could be made for the past perfect. Thanks for throwing that out there Seek!

-t

Georges personal diary and album formed the basis for his

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