past perfect tense [edited]

[kgc]

I saw this on OG 11:

[deleted - OG is a banned source here]

the correct answer is D, my first question is:

Wouldn't it be better if we have: as many changes at once as they did in?

And my second question is: in A, if we have changed

so many changes

to

as many changes

to have something like this:

as many changes at once as they had in,

would it still be wrong, because the past perfect tense should not have an advertial indicating the time like

in 1986

? I am not sure about this, could someone kindly help please?

Cheers,
kg

[Jag]

Hi,
This question takes the idioms of the form

not so much ... as

and

as much as

so D is the correct answer

Cheers
Jag

[JonathanSchneider]

I had to deleted the quotation, because we cannot post from the OG here.

However, in general:

Jag is correct that this question involves an idiom. The proper idiom is "as many as."

As to the past perfect, we use it for the earlier of two past actions. While you can connect another verb to the past perfect by use of the helper verb "had," you do not want to do this when that new verb is not supposed to be in the past perfect also. Note that if you were to rewrite the sentence to have only past perfect verbs, this would be improper, as the past perfect functions in comparison to a verb in the simple past tense.