past perfect or past simple
There are two sentences and I have to choose one that is correct:
a)I felt ill when I ate the pudding.
b)I felt ill when I had eaten the pudding.

I am really confused here, as the rules of both past perfect and past simple can indicate the sequence of actions, and one of the rules for past perfect is to describe reason for past situation.

So, I am not really sure what is a really correct answer here.

A or B must be chosen based on a picture which represents a guy eating a pudding.

If you could help me that would be great, thank you :)

Question

past perfect or past simple
There are two sentences and I have to choose one that is correct:
a)I felt ill when I ate the pudding.
b)I felt ill when I had eaten the pudding.

I am really confused here, as the rules of both past perfect and past simple can indicate the sequence of actions, and one of the rules for past perfect is to describe reason for past situation.

So, I am not really sure what is a really correct answer here.

A or B  must be chosen based on a picture which represents a guy eating a pudding.

If you could help me that would be great, thank you :)

Answer

They are both correct.  You could use either the past simple or past perfect here, and the meaning is the same. Both sentences mean that he ate the pudding and then felt ill as a result.

If this is meant to be a grammar exercise of some kind, it's a terrible one.

Answer

In b) "had"indicates a completed action at a particular time in the past ( its use would imply that the listener was aware of when and where this happened); a) suggests a cause for feeling ill, rather than a time sequence.