Barely seventeen and leading the French army wearing a mans

Question

Barely seventeen and leading the French army wearing a man’s armor, Joan of Arc, an illiterate peasant girl from the French countryside,  broke the seven month-old seize of Orleans in nine days, and had risen to become an instant national heroine, even as other generals dreaded  to stand up to the English and wanted to capitulate.

(A) broke the seven month-old seize of Orleans in nine days, and had risen to become an instant national heroine, even as other generals dreaded 
(B) breaking the seven month-old seize of Orleans in nine days rose to become an instant national heroine, even as other generals had dreaded 
© had broken the seven month-old seize of Orleans in nine days, and risen to become an instant national heroine, even as other generals had dreaded
(D) had risen to become an instant national heroine, breaking the seven month-old seize of Orleans in nine days, even as other generals dreaded 
(E) broke the seven month-old seize of Orleans in nine days, and rose to become an instant national heroine, even as other generals dreaded

methevoid · Answer

IMO E !! 
  sounds perfect

whiplash2411 · Answer

The word "broke" is used in the right context and by rules of parallelism, had risen should be "rose". So if you look for the answer choice that does this, it's E.

singh181 · Answer

Please explain why C is wrong in detail.

daagh · Answer

@Singh181: Why C is wrong

Rules for using past tense and past perfect tense

Use of past perfect is essentially a chronological factor, when two events or more that started and ended in the past are to be marked with proper tenses. In this scenario, the one that is clearly the  earlier , will be in past perfect and the one that is  later  in simple past. Supposing there were more than two events, the last of one of the series of action will entail a simple past tense, while the all the previous ones will entail a past perfect.

Thus, to cite an example,

1. I  had woken  up pretty late in the morning and  darted  to the office like a bullet.

Only two events and hence the last one is in simple past and the earlier one is in past perfect.

2. I  had woken  up pretty late,  taken  bath quickly,  eaten  my breakfast in a gulp and  darted  to the office like a bullet.
More than two events, only the last one in simple past and all the other earlier ones, though more than one, marked in past perfect.

By logical predication, a past perfect can not exist alone without an accompanying simple past. Thus when only one event is involved, you can not express it in the past perfect.

Ex; I  had taken  two cups of tea this morning
Ex; I  had lived  in Canada in the 1980s

Both the above examples are wrong, because they are not accompanied by a simple past event. 
The correct answers are: I took two cups of tea; I lived in Canada 1980s.

Similarly, even if there is more the one event, say two, three or four, you can not mark all of them with past perfect. At least, one function should be presented in simple past, naturally the last of them, to expose the chronological difference

3. When the events that occurred in the past are  not distinguishable  in regard to the timing, or if they occurred at the same time, then  only simple past  should be used for all the events.

Ex: As I  entered  the room, I  was shocked  to see the students snoring 
Here,  entering  and  being shocked  are happening at the same time. You can not say one is earlier than the other. So use simple past for bo

Therefore you may see that the three past perfect tenses that are dangling without the presence of a simple past in choice C is ungrammatical. In the given case, the breaking, the rising and the dreading etc are happening at the same time, so let use simple past for all the three phenomena, without any distinction.

Does it help?

singh181 · Answer

Very good explanation. Thank you very much.

Barely seventeen and leading the French army wearing a mans

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