Grammar Question [verb tense]

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>1.) In 1952, when the Federal Communications Commission lifted its ban on new television stations, there were 105 stations and 15 million households with television sets, but by 1956 the number of stations had grown to almost 500 and the number of households with sets to nearly 35 million. No error</p>

<p>Answer: No Error
My Question: Can someone explain to me why Choice (C) is correct? "Had grown" is used to indicate a past event that happened before some other past event. The first event happened in 1952. The second event (with the verb "had grown") takes place in 1956. This is AFTER the first event, not before.</p>

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<p>“had grown” is past perfect, and it can be correctly used to refer to past events.
“the action of the past perfect is action completed in the past before another action.”</p>

3

<p>Even though first sentence is omitted, the choice (C), had grown, is still correct:
“By 1956, the number of stations had grown to almost 500 and the number of households with sets to nearly 35 million.”</p>

<p>I am not sure how to explain this… but hopefully my few examples help:</p>

<p>First of all, the rule is</p>

<p>by(past), had + past perfect
by(future), will have + past perfect</p>

<p>For instance,</p>

<p>By 2008, I had finished my comprehensive research about SAT.
By 2010, John and Ma had graduated from Harvard college.
By the day before SAT in 2009, I had memorized 3,500 words.</p>

<p>By 2012, I will have left the United States to enroll in Hong Kong university.
By tomorrow, I will have received much criticism about my not unambiguous comment.
By December 3, 2012, I will have prepared to conquer the SAT.</p>

4

<p>@klausman but I thought past tense was used to refer to past events, and past perfect used to determine an event before an another past event? For example: “The cat had eaten my homework, so I called Kelly to…”</p>

<p>[ENGLISH</a> PAGE - Past Perfect](<a href=“http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html]ENGLISH”>Past Perfect Tense | ENGLISH PAGE)</p>

<p>@UPenns Do you know the name of this rule or a source so I could read up on it. Thank you!</p>

5

<p>The past perfect is used to indicate that an event has been completed (“perfected”) before a specific time. In this case, 1956 indicates the specific time before which the action (grow) was completed. </p>

<p>As UPenns states, whatever happened in 1953 is irrelevant to the construction of the potentially independent clause starting with “By 1956.”</p>

6

<p>@Morton</p>

<p>There are surprisingly few detailed discussions of this common usage.</p>

<p>See example 2 at [My</a> English Grammar - Past Perfect Tense](<a href=“http://www.myenglishgrammar.com/past-perfect-tense.html]My”>http://www.myenglishgrammar.com/past-perfect-tense.html).</p>

7

<p>@my$0.02 Thank you! I understand now. And the link was helpful as well :)</p>