Although Smith once championed the charity, he changed his mind after

Question

Although Smith  once championed the charity , he changed his mind after a journalist linked its origin to a corrupt individual.

A. once championed the charity

B. had once championed the charity

C. has once championed the charity

D. was a champion of the charity once

E. championed the charity at one time

Camach700 · Accepted Answer

IMO past perfect is wrong as its use terminates the action under consideration BEFORE the following event, which would deviate from the actual meaning of this sentence.

I will try to explain myself better with an example:

- I had (already) eaten when the doctor came - Timeline: I eat --> I finish eating --> the doctor comes

Hence, accordingly to the logic of past perfect tense, in our original sentence we would have:

- Although Smith had once championed the charity, he changed his mind after a journalist linked its origin to a corrupt individual.

Timeline: Smith champions the charity --> Smith does not champions the charity anymore --> Smith changes his mind.

This is incorrect. Smith was still championing the charity before the journalist made the link. This suggests us that the first subordinate clause must have the same tense of the following independent one in order to express the correct meaning of the original sentence.

Hope this helps.

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Bombsante · Answer

I will attempt an explanation:

Although Smith  once championed the charity , he changed his mind after a journalist linked its origin to a corrupt individual.

The sentence intends to tell the reader that Mr Smith was once associated with a charity (unnamed). However, when a journalist linked the origin of this charity to a corrupt individual, Mr Smith changed his mind.

IMO here word championed is used as a verb in past tense. Here championed probably means advocated. If we decode this meaning, it is easier to eliminate wrong answer choices.

A. once championed the charity  (correct meaning; once advocated a particular charity) 
B. had once championed the charity  (had is used to depict an action that has happened before another action in the past, here the sentence conveys that Smith changed his mind after link to some corrupt person was unearthed. So the action of linking of charity to corrupt individual happened before Smith championed the charity. Incorrect) 
C. has once championed the charity  (this erroneously means that he is still advocating the charity which is not the intended meaning, incorrect) 
D. was a champion of the charity once  (changes the meaning,  was champion of charity  means that he used to do a lot of charity IMO. Incorrect) 
E. championed the charity at one time  (Not sure but IMO this option means Smith advocated the charity one time only. If that is true why would he change his mind? Incorrect)

I hope that my line of reasoning and elimination of incorrect answer choices is rational.

azoz7 · Answer

I was between A and B. The reason I eliminated B is that "once" indicates that this action happened before changing his mind. Therefore, I thought if I used the past perfect with "once", it would be redundant.

JDF · Answer

Are we absolutely sure B violates the grammar rules that govern the GMAT? This seems very dubious to me.

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jrk23 · Answer

Can anyone please explain why "B" is wrong. i think the sequence of event is correct and had is required for that.

vimas · Answer

Although I marked B as the answer, I think A is correct. 
Had "Past participle" is supposed to be used when it precedes an event mentioned in the sentence. Since "once" is used in B it makes "had" redundant.

zeyneptuzun · Answer

I'm confused as to why B is incorrect. I thought of the timeline as:
championing the charity --> linking to a corrupt individual --> changing mind.
Could someone please explain why we can't use past perfect in this case as the act of championing charity is happening before both of the other acts?

ruchik · Answer

GMATNinja   GMATNinja Two,  hazelnut   generis 
Need help to understand why B is incorrect in this question.

meetnikhil · Answer

Even I selected B.
IMO the reason for A to be correct is that in this sentence it is pretty clear that championed occurred before changed.
So no need to exclusively use 'HAD' to indicate which one event occurred first.

mggmat19 · Answer

I am not an expert of the reasoning, but I think the word "once" makes the use of past perfect tense redundant, as it can be understood that Smith long before(something happened afterward, mentioned in second line) was a champion, and now he no longer holds the title.

agarwalankur · Answer

We don't need past perfect tense in option B because of the word  "after"  written in the clause after the comma.

The word  after  gives us the directional sense of the timeline of each event in the sentence. Hence use of  had  becomes redundant.

Although Smith  had  once championed the charity, he changed his mind  after  a journalist linked its origin to a corrupt individual -Hence is incorrect

furkanicus · Answer

I also selected B and was confused as to how A can be correct. While I was looking for alternative explanations, I found this document with a solution manual. The solution manual says the correct answer is B with the following explanation:

17. (B) The tense shifts in the answer choices. Two events happened in the past, and
one happened earlier than the other did (Smith championed the charity, and then he
changed his mind). The past perfect tense is best to convey this meaning. (A), (C), (D),
and (E) don’t use the correct tense. Choose (B).

thelastskybender · Answer

I think option B is correct. We can use time marker with 'had' as long as they don't contradict each other.

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Sajjad1994 · Answer

(B)  changes the meaning of the sentence. By using the past perfect tense ("had once championed the charity"), it implies that Smith's championing of the charity occurred before the journalist linked its origin to a corrupt individual.

However, the original sentence implies that Smith's change of mind occurred after the journalist's revelation. The past perfect tense in answer choice (B) would suggest that Smith changed his mind before the journalist's link was made.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  thelastskybender ,

We hope this finds you well.

To clarify, Option B is not exactly incorrect, but the use of the past perfect tense verb "had supported" alongside the word "after" is redundant; remember, when the chronology is clear because of terms such as "before/after/when/earlier/later"…or because of clear mention of dates, use past perfect tense is not required, though not incorrect either.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Although Smith once championed the charity, he changed his mind after

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Although Smith once championed the charity, he changed his mind after

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