Each of the dogs now in the animal shelter had been neglected by their

Question

Each of the dogs now in the animal shelter  had been neglected by their former owner before they were abandoned.

A. had been neglected by their former owner before they were abandoned

B. was neglected by its former owner before it was abandoned

C. was neglected by their former owner before they were abandoned

D. had been neglected by its former owner before it was abandoned

E. was abandoned, but before that they had been neglected by their former owner

generis · Accepted Answer

Done.
This question does a good job at forcing us to think about verb tense shifts and sequence, but as I note below, I think that the question is not quite representative of what we see in official questions.

We have a sequence of events. 
The past perfect verb tell us "this event came before the other event."

Using a sequence word such as "before" in option D is not preferred because its verbs already signal sequence.
Whenever a preference is possible, GMAC leans quite heavily towards a preference for simple present and simple past tenses.

LevanKhukhunashvili  , your preference is probably correct.

Option D  does  have an issue.
Past perfect + one simple past tense event already indicates sequence. 
This verb in particular creates an issue in (D): an owner cannot neglect a dog  after  the owner abandons the dog.

Adding a sequence word such as  before  to (D) is not necessary. You prefer (B). Why?

I do not recall any official question in which the addition of a sequence word was the deciding factor.
(That is, the OE mentioned redundancy as a basis for rejecting an option that resembled option D in this sentence, but that answer was incorrect for additional reasons.)

We use past perfect to show that one of two past events occurred earlier in time.

In order to use past perfect, we need either at least one verb in simple past tense or a time marker that happened in the past but later than the past perfect event.

Although occasionally a phrase such as "long before" is added for emphasis, we do not  need  a sequence word.
The verb tenses announce the sequence. Simple past is later in time. Past perfect is earlier than that simple past event.

One   simple past tense verb   plus one   past perfect tense verb  :
The manager   believed   that the employee   had stolen   the petty cash.

We can also use a   past time marker   (rare), this way:
   By the time of his 1975 release  , Senator John McCain   had been imprisoned   in North Vietnam for almost seven years. 
 
Past perfect already indicates that we are talking about the past of the past.

A sequence word in a sentence that contains past perfect and simple past (such that sequence is already indicated) is not a "crime," as you describe the issue. 
In Standard Written English, though, adding a sequence word is not preferred.

I agree with Manhattan SC (6th edition, pp. 125-26) on this point:

We do not have the option to find a different decision point for choices B and D.

Choose the answer that contains zero chance of redundancy. 
(Again, I do not recall a single question in which GMAC used this issue as THE ONLY decisive factor in an answer.)

LevanKhukhunashvili · Answer

A. had been neglected by  their  former owner before  they were  abandoned
--- "Each of the dogs" is singular, so plural "their" and "they" are incorrect. I dont see any problem with past perfect, we could use simple past as we have got "before" to differentiate past actions, but past perfect is not a crime IMO

B. was neglected by its former owner before it was abandoned
--- I will bet on this one, I dont see any subject verb error

C. was neglected by  their  former owner before they were abandoned
--- "their" and "they" are incorrect as mentioned above

D. had been neglected by its former owner before it was abandoned
--- I dont see any problem here but I prefer B to D

E. was abandoned, but before that they had been neglected by their former owner
--- "their" and "they" are incorrect as mentioned above

IMO
Ans:  B

generis · Answer

pink = suspect or controversial  
  red = incorrect

• Split #1:  Each is singular.  Pronouns and verbs should be singular.

Each  of the dogs  is singular.
The pronouns should be  it  (= dog) and  its  (= dog's)
The verb should be  was

Options A, C, and E incorrectly use    they, their,  and  they were    rather than    it, its,  and  it was

Eliminate A, C, and E

Split #2 • Past perfect + sequence word (D)  is worse than  simple past + sequence word (B)

I doubt that we would be forced into this choice, but

Option (D) arguably contains redundancy because we do not need a time sequence word when we have "had been neglected."

The past perfect verb tense  itself  tells us that before each dog WAS abandoned, the dog underwent a period of neglect—each dog  had been  neglected.

Worse, the logic of these verbs also already indicates sequence. You cannot abandon a dog and then neglect it.

By contrast, option B presents the often-preferred simple past tense and uses the word "before" to make sequence crystal clear. 
Option B is logical and constructed in a way that does not involve controversy. (See below)
I would vote for the not-controversial construction.

Eliminate D

The answer is B

***
  Option B vs. Option D

Two events happen in the past. One event happened before the other.

Each dog was neglected by its owner and subsequently abandoned.

B) Each dog was neglected before it was abandoned by its owner.
D) Each dog had been neglected before it was abandoned by its owner.

before  in D.
As a logical matter, an owner cannot abandon a dog and then neglect it.
Neglect comes first.]

Okay, in (B) we have a clear signal of sequence: each dog was neglected  before  it was abandoned.

GMAC prefers simple past tense when sequence is clear.

Further, GMAC prefers options that are not redundant to options that may be redundant.
Option (D) may be redundant.

As long as the other event is in simple past tense, past perfect  itself  "announces" that one event came before another event.

Option D contains both simple past (was abandoned) and past perfect (had been neglected).
We do not need the word  before .

On the other hand. . . .
The rhetorical emphasis arguably is the fact that each dog was not only abandoned but also neglected for awhile beforehand.

If we want to highlight that the dog endured neglect  for some unspecified time until it was abandoned , then "had been neglected" is more emphatic. Perhaps for rhetorical emphasis we do need the "before" in option D.

I opted for safety: (B) is absolutely fine and contains no possibility of redundancy.

As I mentioned, it's good that this question forces us to think about verbs and time shifts.
At the same time, I do not think that the question is representative of an official question once we get to B and D.

As far as I recall, on the GMAT, there should be  an additional basis  upon which to eliminate B or D.

This area is not settled. GMAC often avoids such areas.
-- Some grammarians and linguists argue that including "before" with "had been neglected" is perfectly fine.
-- Other grammarians and linguists argue that including "before" with "had been neglected" is redundant. (And many imply that including "before" sounds as though we do not understand how past perfect works.)

I do not think that GMAC would force us into this split.

pradeepgontla · Answer

There are so many confusing statements above about gmat preferring simple past over past perfect. Would like to shed light on my understanding.

The Correct option is indeed B not because of GMAT preference but because of wordiness of the options when we use past perfect tense an extra had/had been will be required. Although grammatically using had/had been with before in the sentence is not wrong the option will be an error on the basis of wordiness.

Hope this helps.

Each of the dogs now in the animal shelter had been neglected by their

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