getgyan wrote:
The spotted hyena, now found only in sub-Saharan Africa, had been once found in many parts of Europe and Asia.
A. The spotted hyena, now found only in sub-Saharan Africa, had been once found in many parts of Europe and Asia.
B. The spotted hyena, having been found only in sub-Saharan Africa, was once found in many parts of Europe and Asia.
C. The spotted hyena, now only found in sub-Saharan Africa, was once found in many parts of Europe and Asia.
D. The spotted hyena, now found only in sub-Saharan Africa, was once found in many parts of Europe and Asia.
E. The spotted hyena, now found in sub-Saharan Africa, was once found only in many parts of Europe and Asia
Responding to a pm:
Note that past perfect i.e. 'had been' is used only when you have two past actions in a sequence. The action that took place first uses past perfect and the action that took place later uses simple past. So (A) is incorrect.
Think of what the sentence is trying to convey - The spotted hyena is now found only in Africa. A long time back it was found in many parts of Europe and Asia.
So it tells you something about the present and something about the past.
"having been" is the past participle form which emphasis that one action completed before another action took place.
Having been to Germany, I recognized the Cologne dome in the picture.
So (B) is incorrect.
In (C), placement of 'only' is not correct. 'It is found only in' ... not 'it is only found in'. In the second construction, the meaning changes. e.g.
The play is performed only in English.
The play is only performed in English. (It means it is only performed in English. It might have been written in a different language.)
(E) changes the meaning of the sentence. It says that the hyena was not found in Africa earlier which is not the intended meaning of the sentence.
(D) is correct.