SC Strategy 5th edition, page 109

[mamajonov]

Dear Experts,
I read many many times following part of the page 109, but never understood. COuld you please expalin in other words. Thanks in advance
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Using this construction, you can even make a tricky sentence in which the first clause expresses an early action in past simple.Then, a second clause expresses a later action in past perfect to indicate a continued effect(by a still later past time)
Ex:"The band U2 was just one of many new groups on the rock music scene in the early 1980`s, but less than ten years later, U2 had fully eclipsed its early rivals in the pantheon of popular music. "

[RonPurewal]

the point there is that the two clauses of that sentence have two different temporal points of view. the first clause just describes what is essentially an isolated historical event/state, but the second clause describes the situation from the particular point of view of "less than ten years later".

the key here is not to think of the two as interacting with each other; they're separate issues. i.e., independently of each other, these sentences are just obeying the basic rules for these tenses:
* past tense - can be used for isolated past events
* past perfect (had VERBed) - can be used to describe, from a specific standpoint in the past, a previously attained event/state with an impact on that point of view.

there's no synergy here; you just have to know, separately, how these two tenses work (and you have to realize that different clauses can have different time standpoints).

[mamajonov]

Thank you very much

the point there is that the two clauses of that sentence have two different temporal points of view. the first clause just describes what is essentially an isolated historical event/state, but the second clause describes the situation from the particular point of view of "less than ten years later".

the key here is not to think of the two as interacting with each other; they're separate issues. i.e., independently of each other, these sentences are just obeying the basic rules for these tenses:
* past tense - can be used for isolated past events
* past perfect (had VERBed) - can be used to describe, from a specific standpoint in the past, a previously attained event/state with an impact on that point of view.

there's no synergy here; you just have to know, separately, how these two tenses work (and you have to realize that different clauses can have different time standpoints).

[RonPurewal]

Sure.