Stacey/Ron:Doubt on Usage of Past Perfect

[himanshu.barik.86]

Hi Stacey/Ron,
I came across the following question while watching a youtube video of an expert from a different forum and am confused with the explanation provided by him.Please help.

Question ==>
Because of the destruction of cathedral treasuries during the French revolution,works of Anglo-Saxon art became scarce after the majority of the pieces (had found/found) their way to France.

The doubt is in the usage of the correct tense in the bracketed part.

I had studied in the MGMAT SC guide that the usage of words like "before" and "after" indicate the sequence of events clearly and make the use of PAST PERFECT unnecessary. So,I chose "found".But the expert seemed to ignore this fact and chose "had found".

Please help.

[jnelson0612]

Hi Stacey/Ron,
I came across the following question while watching a youtube video of an expert from a different forum and am confused with the explanation provided by him.Please help.

Question ==>
Because of the destruction of cathedral treasuries during the French revolution,works of Anglo-Saxon art became scarce after the majority of the pieces (had found/found) their way to France.

The doubt is in the usage of the correct tense in the bracketed part.

I had studied in the MGMAT SC guide that the usage of words like "before" and "after" indicate the sequence of events clearly and make the use of PAST PERFECT unnecessary. So,I chose "found".But the expert seemed to ignore this fact and chose "had found".

Please help.

To me the simple past tense "found" is perfectly adequate here. As you stated, the sequence of events is abundantly clear here. The GMAT prefers simple tenses over complex tenses, and we should only use complex tenses if they are needed.