The National Library has recently acquired a manuscript

Question

The National Library has recently acquired a manuscript by Jenkins that should provide answers to the much-disputed question of  the extent to which this author’s work had been altered by her editors in the years before she died .

A. the extent to which this author’s work had been altered by her editors in the years before she died 
B. the extent this author’s editors altered her work in the years before she died 
C. how much the work of this author had been altered in the years before her death by her editors 
D. the extent her editors altered this author’s work in the years before her death 
E. the extent to which this author’s work was altered by her editors in the years before she died

gmatter0913 · Answer

I was stuck between A and E, and I chose E. I am not sure what is wrong with E.

gauravkaushik8591 · Answer

A. the extent to which this author’s work  had been  altered by her editors  in the years  before she died

E. the extent to which this author’s work  was  altered by her editors  in the years  before she died

'Was' would have been correct if the the alteration happened once. But the clause 'in the years' makes it clear that the action continued instead of happening once. Now since the action continued upto another event i.e. her death, we would use past perfect progressive/past perfect continuous.

Hope this makes it clear.

However, in my opinion, an absence of 'in the years' clause would render option E as the correct option.

infotalk · Answer

"Had been" is used to describe an activity that occured before the other mentioned activity. I also came down to A and E, but then it was clear to me when I saw the choice between "had been" and "was"

gauravkaushik8591 · Answer

'Had altered' would mention an activity that occured before other activity. But 'had been' would mention something that happened in the past all the way upto another event in the past.

There's a very subtle difference

gvij2017 · Answer

Hello there.

I have one question here. 
Here are two things..
1. extent to which a manuscript altered 
2. she died. 
Both are sequenced by using "Before"
Does "before"- a time marker- play no role?
Moreover, both A and E are written in passive voice.

ArupRS · Answer

aragonn ,  GMATNinja ,  GMATNinjaTwo ,  sudarshan22 ,  broall ,  hazelnut ,  Vyshak ,  generis

Please help us to understandthat why do we need "had" here?

AdityaHongunti · Answer

VeritasKarishma   mikemcgarry   daagh   chetan2u   GMATNinja   DmitryFarber   sayantanc2k

please explain me the difference in usage of "had " and "was " here.. The sequencing is pretty clear by the word "before"
only unclear concept i have is do we need past perfect here as we have "had BEEN... " here.. does that make a difference??

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Past perfect is rarely necessary; it's simply a way of making the intended meaning a bit more clear. In this case, it's certainly justified--there's another past event that the alteration clearly precedes--but "was" seems to work just as well. I don't see an actual error in E.

AdityaHongunti · Answer

Bunuel  please remove this question... The question has two answers.. A and E ..and both are credible . 
Or please change the tag to "dabatable OA"

Posted from my mobile device

Bunuel · Answer

____________
Done. Thank you.

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The National Library has recently acquired a manuscript

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The National Library has recently acquired a manuscript

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