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16 Sep 2015, 02:38
Kudos
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The band U2 was just one of the many new groups on the rock music scene in the early 1980s ,but less less than ten years later, U2 has fully eclipsed its early rivals in the pantheon of popular music.
How is "had eclipsed" the earlier of the two actions in its independent clause?
How is "had eclipsed" the earlier of the two actions in its independent clause?
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18 Sep 2015, 00:07
Kudos
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Hi happy19, this sentence bears close resemblance to the following official question:
In 1981 children in the United States spent slightly less than an average of two and a half hours a week doing household chores; by 1997 that figure had grown to nearly six hours a week.
I will copy and paste a very similar example and corresponding explanation from our book Sentence Correction Nirvana that will illustrate the reasoning behind this.
In 2007, a typical web user spent less than 4 hours a month on Facebook; by 2011, that figure had gone up to 8 hours.
There are actually 3 events that this sentence talks about:
(a) The time that a typical web user spent on Facebook in 2007
(b) 4 years passing since then (between 2007 and 2011)
(c) But, before those 4 years passed (within those years, as indicated by the words by 2011), that figure (the time that a typical web user spent on Facebook) went up to 8 hours.
However, note that (c) happened before (b) and hence, (c) should be in past perfect (in this case: had gone up). It should also be noted that in 2007 is a specific time, and so, a typical web user spent less than 4 hours a month on Facebook is correctly expressed in simple past (remember that simple past is used to express the situation that an event started and finished at a specific time in the past); on the other hand, by 2011 is an unspecified time because this could refer to any time in or before 2011), and so, a perfect tense (past perfect in this case) would correctly depict this situation.
I am hoping you can now easily draw parallels with the specific sentence in your post, and also the official sentence I have stated towards the beginning of my post here.
If you (or someone else) is interested, please PM me your mail-id and I can send you the section on Past-Perfect, from Sentence Correction Nirvana.
In 1981 children in the United States spent slightly less than an average of two and a half hours a week doing household chores; by 1997 that figure had grown to nearly six hours a week.
I will copy and paste a very similar example and corresponding explanation from our book Sentence Correction Nirvana that will illustrate the reasoning behind this.
In 2007, a typical web user spent less than 4 hours a month on Facebook; by 2011, that figure had gone up to 8 hours.
There are actually 3 events that this sentence talks about:
(a) The time that a typical web user spent on Facebook in 2007
(b) 4 years passing since then (between 2007 and 2011)
(c) But, before those 4 years passed (within those years, as indicated by the words by 2011), that figure (the time that a typical web user spent on Facebook) went up to 8 hours.
However, note that (c) happened before (b) and hence, (c) should be in past perfect (in this case: had gone up). It should also be noted that in 2007 is a specific time, and so, a typical web user spent less than 4 hours a month on Facebook is correctly expressed in simple past (remember that simple past is used to express the situation that an event started and finished at a specific time in the past); on the other hand, by 2011 is an unspecified time because this could refer to any time in or before 2011), and so, a perfect tense (past perfect in this case) would correctly depict this situation.
I am hoping you can now easily draw parallels with the specific sentence in your post, and also the official sentence I have stated towards the beginning of my post here.
If you (or someone else) is interested, please PM me your mail-id and I can send you the section on Past-Perfect, from Sentence Correction Nirvana.
19 Sep 2015, 08:04
Kudos
Bookmarks
EducationAisle
Thanks EducationAisle it clears my doubt. i found your analogy really helpful. I will try implementing it on more such situations and understand better.
Archived Topic
Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
Where to now? Join ongoing discussions on thousands of quality questions in our Verbal Questions Forum
Still interested in this question? Check out the "Best Topics" block above for a better discussion on this exact question, as well as several more related questions.
Thank you for understanding, and happy exploring!
