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Bunuel
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Bunuel
In January 2015, geoscientists proved the previously discarded theory that some of the ocean's underwater volcanoes did not erupt from hot spots in the Earth's mantle but instead were formed from cracks or fissures in the oceanic crust.

A. that some of the ocean's underwater volcanoes did not erupt from hot spots in the Earth's mantle but instead were

B. in which some of the ocean's underwater volcanoes had not erupted from hot spots in the Earth's mantle but instead had

C. that some of the ocean's underwater volcanoes had not erupted from hot spots in the Earth's mantle but instead were

D. that some of the ocean's underwater volcanoes from hot spots did not erupt in the Earth's mantle but instead were

E. in which some of the ocean's underwater volcanoes did not erupt from hot spots in the Earth's mantle but instead were

Answer is (A)

Eliminate B and E: To decide between "that" and "which," remember that "that" is used when the information after it is needed to define the subject, while "which" is used when the information after it is not needed to define the subject
Eliminate C: "had not erupted" isn't needed
Eliminate D: change in meaning
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I am little confused with option C. Why past perfect is not required here? Can someone explain please.
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I too came down to A and C and had the same question: why not use past perfect? Here's why I went with A instead of C. Both of the events in C need to be in the same tense, since they purportedly occurred at the same time. This is where C stood out as wrong to me, since the latter part of this option says "...but instead were formed..." I think, tense-wise, the correct version would be: "...but instead had formed..."

The use of past-perfect is not needed in A because the past perfect-simple past tool is used to identify the earlier of the two events. In our sentence, the use of the word "previously" shows that what we are talking about in the underlined sentence took placed before "geologists proved".

EtaCarnia
I am little confused with option C. Why past perfect is not required here? Can someone explain please.
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