<p>.. My friend taught himself to juggle and by the age of six could juggle three balls perfectly. He went in for juggling, as though he had been born with exceptional eye-hand coordination. </p>
<p>a) had a talent for
b) had been good at</p>
<p>What makes B wrong?</p>
<p>“Had been” is in the past perfect tense. It indicates a time before the time of another past-tense verb in the sentence (or in this case, in the sentence before it).</p>
<p>If the sentence said “he had been good at juggling,” that would say that was good at juggling at some time before the other past tense verb, which in this case is “taught.” It makes no sense to say that he “had been good at juggling” before he taught himself to juggle. </p>
<p>On the other hand, it does make sense to say that when your friend taught himself to juggle as a young child, he had a talent for juggling–at that same past time. The past perfect tense makes sense for “had been born” because your friend was, presumably, born at some time in the past before the time when he demonstrated a talent for juggling.</p>
<p>Kind of complicated, I know, but that’s the deal.</p>
<p>Thanks, that makes sense :)</p>
<p>I used to teach middle-school and high-school English, but that’s all straight out of the Latin 1 that I learned in 7th and 8th grade.</p>
<p>Awesome! That was the same reasoning I used too :D</p>