In 1713, Alexander Pope began his translation of the Iliad, a work that had taken him seven years to complete, and that literary critic Samuel Johnson,Pope’s contemporary, pronounced the greatest translation in any language.

Can you please explain elaborately why simple past is required here and not past perfect

past perfect is used when you want to express the relation between two events in the past, specifying that one occurred before the other. The event in the past perfect occurred before.

In 1713, Alexander Pope began his translation of the Iliad, a work that had taken him seven years to complete


-------a work that had taken him 7 years --------1713 began the translation

If you look at this in time the sentence says that Alexander Pope had completed the work before starting the translation.

yes. nicely done.

In 1713, Alexander Pope began his translation of the Iliad, a work that, taking him seven years until completion, and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced the greatest translation in any language.
A. his translation of the Iliad, a work that, taking him seven years until completion, and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced
B. his translation of the Iliad, a work that took him seven years to complete and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced
C. his translation of the Iliad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it as
D. translating the Iliad, a work that took seven years until completion and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it as
E. translating the Iliad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it

I am confused with the use of until. Can anybody give examples of the use of until?

hi --
for questions that are this general and don't pertain to any particular problem, just use google.
e.g., google "usage of until" or "until usage english" and you will find literally hundreds of results that explain the concept in much more detail than we could here.

I was confused between B and D. I chose D as the work refers to : translating the Iliad”.

Moreover, a pronoun should follow after “ pronounced”.

Please explain.

That's exactly the problem with D. It says:

"Alexander Pope began translating the Iliad, a work that took seven years until completion . . . "

The modifier placement of "a work . . . " makes it appear that the Iliad itself took seven years until completion. In fact, it is the translation that took seven years. Answer choice B fixes this problem.

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

Hi Jamie, i still have a doubt, that as said in answer D and E, "translating the Iliad" is not correct because it seems the work reffers to Illiad instead of translating.
But isn't "translating the Iliad" a simple Gerund?, where the whole phrase "translating the Iliad" acts as the noun?, and therefore the ",a work.." should rightly be able to reffer to the "translating the Iliad"?.
Though i agree "his translation of the Iliad" puts Iliad in prepostional phrase therefore the work clearly reffers to the translation.

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Jammy

"began translating" is the verb phrase--Alexander Pope began translating the Iliad. "translating" is not functioning as a noun here, and we know that a gerund is a verb used as a noun. It doesn't make sense to think this sentence says "Alexander Pope began noun the Iliad.

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

Another problem with (d) is the use of 'it' after pronounced.

Thanks Jamie, I was a bit confused about the difference between the translation of Iliad and translating the iliad. I understand now.

Regards

Sunil

Glad to hear it!

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

I am still not very clear between the split

a) translating the Iliad
b) his translation of the Iliad

Somebody please elaborate

Hi Tim/Jamie/Ron

Can U explain how the clause a work.... modifies entire "translation of the Illiad "and not only " Illiad" ?

"of the Iliad" is an essential prepositional phrase describing the noun "translation". It tells us exactly what translation we are talking about . . . the translation of the Iliad. Because of this, the modifier following is describing the translation, the subject of this noun phrase. A modifier won't refer to something in a prepositional phrase.

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor