Bunuel
In Nathanial Philbrick's book, Mayflower, the author attempts to describe the challenges that
Puritans faced as they struggled to recreate the English village that they left behind.
(A) Puritans faced as they struggled to recreate the English village that they left behind
(B) Puritans faced as they struggled to recreate the English village that they had left behind
(C) Puritans were facing as they struggled to recreate the English village that they left behind
(D) Puritans had been facing as they struggled to recreate the English village that they left behind
(E) were faced by Puritans as they struggled to recreate the English village that they left behind
Official Explanation :Because the settlers left their English village prior to creating it, the past perfect tense is needed.
Left is past tense, therefore, eliminate
(A).
In
choice (C),
were facing is the incorrect form because the actions were not happening at the same time.
In
choice (D),
had been facing is the incorrect form because the actions weren't continuous.
And in
choice (E), regardless of the change to the beginning of the phrase,
left is still incorrect verb tense.
Choice (B) uses the past perfect tense(
had left). The correct answer is
(B).