"By the time" with Past Simple ?

[Ola Swensson]

Dear all,

In my workbook [Cambridge English, Complete Advanced (C1), 2nd edition by Guy Brook-Hart and Simon Haines, Workbook, p. 14], I have to use the appropriate form of the passive.
I know that usually it is past perfect that is used with “by the time”. So I said that “By the beginning of the twentieth century, the interpretation of dreams had been most commonly associated with…” (see the text below).
However, the right answer is past simple “was most commonly associated”.

I read in some forums that with “by the time” “past simple would never be the correct choice because the time clause "By the + point in time," indicates some separation between the point in time where it is located and the period of time when the event in the main clause occurred” (https://english.stackexchange.com/q...time-past-simple-past-continuous-past-perfect).

Could you tell me please why we can’t use past perfect in this case? Can we say that the use of past simple here breaks the rules?

Thank you very much in advance.

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Text:

Two thousand years ago, dreams were regularly interpreted as supernatural or divine communication, and they were therefore thought to foretell the future. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the interpretation of dreams had been most commonly associated with psychoanalysis and its famous practitioners, Freud and Jung, who regarded dreams as the bridge between the unconscious and conscious mind, a tool with which the secrets of the human mind could be finally unlocked.

 

[jutfrank]

The reason the past perfect isn't right is quite simply that that's not what the writer means. There's no need to look back retrospectively, which is what the perfect aspect is for. The sentence is about the situation at a certain point in time, that being the turn of the twentieth century.

Let me simplify the question for you with an equivalent context:

Yesterday, I worked really hard all day. By the time I got home, ...

a) I'd been exhausted
b) I was exhausted

Which answer fits here? Focus on what the speaker means.

 

[Ola Swensson]

Thank you so much jutfrank!
Now I understand that I should always ask myself what the writer means.
As for your example, I think the right answer is b), because he was still exhausted after he came home.

 

[jutfrank]

Now I understand that I should always ask myself what the writer means.

Yes, this is always the best starting approach.

As for your example, I think the right answer is b), because he was still exhausted after he came home.

Good. Well done.

 

[Tarheel]

I'd been to the store and back. When I got back to the apartment I was tired.

Is there the slightest possibility that I would use past perfect there?

 

[5jj]

I'd been to the store and back. When I got back to the apartment I was tired.

I would use the past simple in the first sentence there.

 

[Tarheel]

I went to the store and came back. When I got back to the apartment I was tired.