Now Yacoub had the qualifications and experience to do great things
 

2nd year secondary SB page 3 the 3rd paragraph in the reading on Professor Magdi Yacoub. "Now Yacoub had the qualifications and experience to do great things." I think it should be "Now Yacoub has the qualifications".

The past tense is correct here because the context is the biography of Professor Yacoub. He studied in Cairo. Then he taught in Chicago. Then he worked with more experienced doctors. After all that work he had the qualifications to go on to greater things. The sentence also serves as a transition because the rest of that paragraph talks about the great things he did.

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