SAT Writing Question

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1

<p>By the end of 1945, Alice, thirty years old but already [an expert in the field of family dynamics, had begun writing] her memoirs</p>

<p>A. [an expert in the field of family dynamics, had begun writing]
C. as an expert in the field of family dynamics, began to write</p>

<p>Why A is correct? i thought the usage of past tense is grammatically correct. There was not two actions which one come first and other later.so, I pick C. Yet, the correct answer is A.</p>

2

<p>The prepositional phrase “by the end of 1945” signals that the action is occurring before another action in the past (the end of 1945), so you use the past perfect tense.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html[/url]”>http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Edit: Okay, I guess that you don’t see the action since there is no other verb. I am not a grammar expert, so I’m not sure.</p>