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The guns that were confiscated by police at the scene of last week's crime had been sold at an illegal gun show.

A. The guns that were confiscated by police at the scene of last week's crime had been:
TWO SEQUENTIAL EVENTS FROM THE PAST CORRECTLY PRESENTED BY SIMPLE PAST AND PAST PERFCT.
CORRECT

B. The police at the scene of last week's crime confiscated the guns that have been:

CHANGE IN PLACEMENT OF MODIFIER 'at the scene of last week's crime' CHANGES THE MEANING

C. The guns that were confiscated by police at the scene of last week's crime have been:
PRESENT PERFECT 'Have been’ INDICATES ACTION OR ITS EFFECT STILL PERSISTS. WRONG

D. The guns that were confiscated by police at the scene of last week's crime were:
DISTORTS INTENDED MEANING BY REMOVING THE REQUIRED SEQUENCING OF TWO EVENTS.

E. Last week the guns that had been confiscated by police in the crime week had been:
USE OF TWO PAST PERFCT TENSES IS INCORRECT

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shubhtr
why is A correct ? D looks better option.
Attachment:
pastperfectcontinuous.gif
pastperfectcontinuous.gif [ 891 Bytes | Viewed 11649 times ]
Past Perfect Continuous Tense is correct in this case as it refers to 2 events in the past...

P1 : Sold Guns in illegal gun show.
P2 : Guns were confiscated by the Police.

Please refer this article on Past Perfect Continuous Tense : https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pa ... nuous.html
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Abhishek009
shubhtr
why is A correct ? D looks better option.
Attachment:
pastperfectcontinuous.gif
Past Perfect Continuous Tense is correct in this case as it refers to 2 events in the past...

P1 : Sold Guns in illegal gun show.
P2 : Guns were confiscated by the Police.

Please refer this article on Past Perfect Continuous Tense : https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pa ... nuous.html
Awesome thanks


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D is the answer .. A non sensically states the relationship between two events .. it looks like selling happens first and then the confiscation took place as Past perfect is used to state the sequencing where had been is used for the earlier event


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An expert explanation may prove helpful here.
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Confusing question. "Had been" is the best answer mainly because it's in the original sentence. The other seemingly correct answers (C and D), changes the tense and therefore the meaning.

Had been is in the past perfect tense, and doesn't change based on whether the subject is plural or singular.
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r24350
D is the answer .. A non sensically states the relationship between two events .. it looks like selling happens first and then the confiscation took place as Past perfect is used to state the sequencing where had been is used for the earlier event


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lostin
An expert explanation may prove helpful here.

If you can determine the sequence of actions, then you can understand why the use of past perfect (option A) is required.

The selling of the guns must have occured BEFORE the confiscation. Guns cannot be sold at an illegal gun show AFTER they are confiscated by the police. Hence to depict that selling occured before confiscation, use of past perfect ("had been sold") is required. Option A is alright.
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Hi Sayantanc2k . Thanks a lot for the response . I made a blunder in understanding the sequence of events


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