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I cannot comprehend why past perfect is used in this sentence! Please help! While one of their transport planes was flying over the Aral Sea, a cow on the plane �d gone mad and the pilot had thrown it out into the sea! Due to the word while I�d normally use past simple ...a cow on the plane went mad and the pilot threw it out into the sea!
Actually, it�s a sentence taken out from an exercise in Opportunities Intermediate (Longman) and it�s definitely not a typo. I was trying to find some similar examples and I came across this:
One or two listeners had fallen asleep while the
President was speaking. (Collins)
Workers had cut through an electrical cable while they were digging.
(Macmillan)
I must admit that I�d never use while + past continuous + past perfect and I still cannot make a connection.
So, what actually happened while the President was speaking? I assume - nothing! One or two speakers had fallen asleep before the speech. Or not? I�m completely puzzled!
Vicky, it is a typo. - trust me -.. the Past Perfect is used to designate the first thing that happen in the past - the order of events that things happened in... And in your example: the cow went crazy first and then it was thrown out, not the other way around. Also, never assume that what you read or see in a book is correct just because it�s in print. Books are edited by people and people make mistakes.
I suppose it�s because the incident is being retold - and the speaker has decided to simplify the past perfect continuous into a past continuous, so as not to sound overburdened with tenses. The sense it has is �they had already fallen asleep while the P. went on speaking� (a completed action while another one is still going on). Using the past perfect emphasizes the idea that the incident is being explained, not directly told. Probably the main action (simple past as main narrative tense) lies elsewhere and all this is part of its context.
