haseli22
Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2005
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Persian
- Home Country
- Iran
- Current Location
- Iran
Dear teachers and native speakers,
In the following paragraph why past perfect has been used in the last sentence? All the sentences are in simple past, so shouldn't the last sentence be in the simple past as well? For me as a nonnative it seems better to use simple past, but I would be grateful if you provide a good answer for me.
"When he found out he was going to receive a $2 million payout in the lottery, he immediately gave up work, lent money to all his friends, whether or not they would be able to pay it back, and went out on a wild spending spree. Within months he had huge credit card debts and no money left to pay them. A year later, he had taken a job as a sales clerk to try to make ends meet."
In the following paragraph why past perfect has been used in the last sentence? All the sentences are in simple past, so shouldn't the last sentence be in the simple past as well? For me as a nonnative it seems better to use simple past, but I would be grateful if you provide a good answer for me.
"When he found out he was going to receive a $2 million payout in the lottery, he immediately gave up work, lent money to all his friends, whether or not they would be able to pay it back, and went out on a wild spending spree. Within months he had huge credit card debts and no money left to pay them. A year later, he had taken a job as a sales clerk to try to make ends meet."