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sashiim20
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deepmaity

I have my doubts on this answer.
Had been vs was

In the sentence, if I can roughly translate,
By the time the meal was ready

The guests had been hungry

Literal meaning:- the meal by the chef was prepared later, the guests had been been hungry before that.

The only sentence I feel that comes close to this hypothesis is

D.

Kindly let me know where am I wrong?

D is wrong. "By the time the meal by the chef was prepared", this structure is awkward. The meal must be prepared by the chef.

In C, "By the time the meal had been prepared by the chef, the guests were quite hungry", "by the time" is used to emphasize the time that some events occured.

The meaning is that at that time, the chef had prepared the meal, or the meal was ready to serve. Also, at that time, people were hungry. No need to use past perfect like "the guests had been been quite hungry" since the clause "the guests were hungry" is good to conveys the meaning.

I know that "by the time" often goes with past simple and other clause goes with past perfect. For example: "By the time Jane
arrived, most of the other guests had gone.". However, I think that "go" is an action, and "hungry" is a state. We can't say that "people have been in a state". Just "people are in a state" is enough
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sashiim20
By the time the meal had been prepared, the guests were incredibly hungry by the chef.

a) had been prepared, the guests were incredibly hungry by the chef
b) was being prepared, the guests were incredibly hungry
c) had been prepared by the chef, the guests were quite hungry
d) by the chef was prepared, the guests were very hungry
e) had been prepared, all the guests had been hungered by the chef
Correct answer must be (B) for the highlighted errors in other options.
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sashiim20
By the time the meal had been prepared, the guests were incredibly hungry by the chef.

a) had been prepared, the guests were incredibly hungry by the chef
b) was being prepared, the guests were incredibly hungry
c) had been prepared by the chef, the guests were quite hungry
d) by the chef was prepared, the guests were very hungry
e) had been prepared, all the guests had been hungered by the chef
Correct answer must be (B) for the highlighted errors in other options.


You mean C?
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