Read the paragraph below then answer the question that follows.
Jane never liked to clean the house. She would always scoff and sulk whenever her mom asked her to help with housecleaning. One day, Jane’s cousin, Cindy, came for a holiday. Cindy loved to clean the house. Every day, she would mop the floor, dust out the mats, spread the beds, and even clean the windows. Jane was amazed by Cindy’s attitude towards housecleaning. She noticed how it made Cindy joyful. She wanted to be like Cindy: she wanted to feel joy in housecleaning too! Bit by bit, Jane started to catch on, and before Cindy returned to her own home, Jane had absolutely loved housecleaning. Indeed, Cindy had inspired Jane to become a great housecleaner.
Question: In the last sentence, “Indeed, Cindy had inspired Jane to become a great housecleaner…” which is correct:
A. had inspired
B inspired
On one hand I’m tempted to choose the simple past “inspired” because there is no action that happened before it in the same sentence. However, people can infer one of the two meanings, “Indeed, before the holidays were over, Cindy had inspired Jane to become a great housecleaner.”
Or they can infer, “Indeed, during the holidays, Cindy inspired Jane to become a great housecleaner.” (or “had inspired” since the holidays are now over and Cindy returned home)
So, in the sentence “Indeed, Cindy (inspire) Jane to become a great housecleaner…” which is correct…
A. past perfect: had inspired
B. simple past: inspired.
On the other hand, I would be tempted to choose “had inspired” because the writer is talking about an action that happened at a closed time period in the story. That is, Cindy became a great housecleaner, but she “had been inspired” to do so at some period in the past before she returned home.
Please type your opinion with explanation in the comments section below.
I think the simple past “inspired” is the correct verb to use in this case. The inspiration happened “bit by bit”, it is a process that took place over a period of time. “Had inspired” would be incorrect because the “inspiring of Jane” is not an action that can be pinpointed to a specific moment in time. Even though there is a timeline, in this specific sentence there is no event or verb that proceeds it, therefore I personally wouldn’t use the past perfect. The sentence stands on its own from a grammatical point of view, which makes the past… Read more »