OG 43

43. In the minds of many people living in England, before Australia was Australia, it was the antipodes, the opposite pole to civilization, an obscure and unimagin-able place that was considered the end of the world. (A) before Australia was Australia, it was the antipodes (B) before there was Australia, it was the antipodes (C) it was the antipodes that was Australia (D) Australia was what was the antipodes (E) Australia was what had been known as the antipodes

Choice A is best, for A alone makes clear that the land now known as Australia was considered the antipodes before it was developed. In B, it has no logical referent, because the previous clause describes a time when there was no Australia. Nor does it have a referent in C: substituting Australia for it produces a nonsensical statement. D is wordy, with the unnecessary what was, and imprecise in suggesting that Australia was considered the antipodes after it became Australia. E similarly distorts the original meaning, and the past perfect had been is inconsistent with the past tense used to establish a time frame for the rest of the sentence.

我对一个时间概念有些困惑。OG说 for A alone makes clear that the land now known as Australia was considered the antipodes before it was developed，既然说before it was developed，就已经明确了过去的一个时间点，比如Australia was developed in 1800，那么被认为是antipodes肯定在1800年前，岂不是过去的过去，要用完成时么？当然后面的未划线部分暗示了一般过去时，我只想知道，如果没有后面的暗示，前面可以用完成时么？

谢谢