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There are three events:
1. CEO assigned the work
2. Managers finding competitor
3. Competitor making huge investments.

So, when CEO summoned, the managers thought of some x estimate. Here, we are not sure of the timing of these thoughts. Whether they had imagined before the summon or imagined after summoned? Not sure. So, option B is ambiguous, since it can also mean that, managers imagined when CEO summoned. In reality, the competitor already had some advantages and the managers already knew the fact. This is not established in B and conveyed only through E

nitesh50
Hi

From what I know:
we use past perfect tense to show the sequence between related events.
For example:
Ram found that the dinosaurs were extinct for over a century.
IN this case Ram can only find about the extinction after it happens. Hence the usage of past perfect tense in this case would have been incorrect.

Coming to this question:
I feel the managers finding and the company making huge investments are not related events i.e their sequencing is clear even without the past perfect tense.
The managers can only find something after the company's competitors do something.

So how can Competitors made huge investments be correct.

Looking forward too a healthy discussion.
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"managers imagined" this is before "managers found"

therefore, we required "had imagined" to properly lay out the timeline

(E) is correct, though (B) looks enticing
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Let's make life simple: First, the imaginations were prior to their finding the reality. Therefore, 'imagined' has to be 'had imagined'. Only C and E survive.

Second, the competitors had made the investments much before these manager came to be aware. It is not that the competitor made those huge investments as soon as the managers started to investigate. Therefore, the investment part also requires a past perfect. C wrongly uses a simple past as if both the events occurred concurrently.

E remains the ultimate choice

No need for further elaboration, I feel
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we have to use had in the " Company making investment par " otherwise we can not make this parallel because at last there is had.

nitesh50
Hi

From what I know:
we use past perfect tense to show the sequence between related events.
For example:
Ram found that the dinosaurs were extinct for over a century.
IN this case Ram can only find about the extinction after it happens. Hence the usage of past perfect tense in this case would have been incorrect.

Coming to this question:
I feel the managers finding and the company making huge investments are not related events i.e their sequencing is clear even without the past perfect tense.
The managers can only find something after the company's competitors do something.

So how can Competitors made huge investments be correct.

Looking forward too a healthy discussion.
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could anyone explain if the "that" in option E is correct.

or is that "that" being used to identify that particular customer?
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daagh
Let's make life simple: First, the imaginations were prior to their finding the reality. Therefore, 'imagined' has to be 'had imagined'. Only C and E survive.

Second, the competitors had made the investments much before these manager came to be aware. It is not that the competitor made those huge investments as soon as the managers started to investigate. Therefore, the investment part also requires a past perfect. C wrongly uses a simple past as if both the events occurred concurrently.

E remains the ultimate choice

No need for further elaboration, I feel


Hi daagh

Is "had" required before imagine since the sequence is clear and imagination happened before found?
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Is "had" required before imagine since the sequence is clear and imagination happened before found?
Hi vasanthinidumolu, not sure if daagh Sir is currently active on the forum.

I would content that here, the sequence is not entirely clear, in the sense that there is no explicit time marker present in the sentence.

Even in those sentences in which time marker is explicitly present (for example, the word before), GMAT is still open to using a past perfect tense, to depict the earlier of the two events.

For example, in the following officially correct sentence:

The personal income tax did not become permanent in the United States until the First World War; before that time the federal government had depended on tariffs as its main source of revenue.

So, my suggestion would be to not discount the usage of past perfect in any sentence that depicts two events in the past (and the earlier of those two events should be expressed as past perfect).

You can watch our video on Past Perfect.
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