OG 13 SC 37

[359158666]

At the end of the question, the original sentence uses the past perfect tense. However, I think "ill" is a state so It needs the normal tense rather than the " had done". What's more, past perfect means that an action happened before something happened. It doesn't match the meaning of the sentence. I mean is the Sampson became ill before she joined the army. It's ridiculous.
Please help me, this question make me confused
Thank you!!

[RonPurewal]

It's ridiculous.

officially correct answers are not wrong!
do not question them!
far too many students on this forum make the mistake of questioning the correct answers; please note that doing so is a complete waste of your time and effort. i.e., exactly 0% of the time that you spend posting "isn't this official answer wrong?" is productive, and exactly 100% of that time is wasted.

"is this correct?" is NEVER a productive question to ask about one of GMAC's correct answers -- the answer is always yes.
"is this wrong?" / "is this X type of error?" is NEVER a productive question to ask about one of GMAC's correct answers -- the answer is always no.

instead, the questions you should be asking about correct official answers, if you don't understand them, are:
"why is this correct?"
"how does this work?"
"what understanding am i lacking that i need to understand this choice?"

this is a small, but hugely significant, change to your way of thinking -- you will suddenly find it much easier to understand the format, style, and conventions of the official problems if you dispose of the idea that they might be wrong.

--

[RonPurewal]

In that problem, "had become too ill" is an event that ...
... came before "was discharged",
... still obtained at the time of the discharge,
and
... was highly relevant to the discharge itself.

This is a perfect formula for the use of the tense "had become".