Had Mr. Michaels taken the earlier train, he could have avoided

Question

Had Mr. Michaels  taken the earlier train, he could have avoided  the lengthy delay due to the severe storm that flooded the crossing. 
a) taken the earlier train, he could have avoided 
b) took the earlier train, he could had avoided 
c) had took the earlier train, he could have avoided 
d) taken the earlier train, he could have to avoid 
e) taken the earlier train, he could had avoided

question from the gmat ultiamte grammar first edition book page 135

I choose the E but I do not understand what is wrong.
The correct response is A

Kritesh · Answer

Could you please underline the sentence correction part as it would be convenient to resolve the question faster

sashiim20 · Answer

I think the underlined part is as follows.

Had Mr. Michaels  taken the earlier train, he could have avoided  the lengthy delay due to the severe storm that flooded the crossing.

a)  taken the earlier train, he could have avoided   -------- (Correct)
b)  took  the earlier train, he could  had  avoided --------- (Incorrect)
c)  had took  the earlier train, he could have avoided --------- (Incorrect)
d) taken the earlier train, he could have  to avoid   ---------- (Incorrect)
e) taken the earlier train, he could  had  avoided ----------- (Incorrect)

Answer (A)...

alcalina · Answer

thanks for the answer. I corrected the exercise.

What do I need to study to understand why E is wrong? I didn't understand why I can't use "could had" in the sentence.

sashiim20 · Answer

Hi alcalina,
As per my reasoning - In the above sentence, there are two actions taking place in past at different times.

"If two actions in a sentence occurred at different times in the past, use the past perfect tense for the earlier action and simple past tense for the later action."

Hope its clear now.

arvind910619 · Answer

Imo A 
This is a conditional sentence 
It describes a hypothetical situation in the past .
So correct structure is Past perfect + conditional

Sent from my ONE E1003 using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

shashankism · Answer

Had Mr. Michaels  taken the earlier train, he could have avoided  the lengthy delay due to the severe storm that flooded the crossing.

If 2 actions are taking place in the past, the earlier action has to be past perfect and then the action is showing something that was possible but, which did not happened.

a) taken the earlier train, he could have avoided  
As discussed above.
 b) took the earlier train, he could had avoided 
Had taken is past perfect
 c) had took the earlier train, he could have avoided 
We can't use 2 had, had taken is past perfect
 d) taken the earlier train, he could have to avoid  
could have avoided is correct.
 e) taken the earlier train, he could had avoided 
could have avoided is correct.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Had Mr. Michaels taken the earlier train, he could have avoided

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Had Mr. Michaels taken the earlier train, he could have avoided

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