Sentence 1. Soon after they were born, they died. Sentence 2. Soon after they had been born, they died. In sentence 1, "were born" is used in creating a sentence in passive voice. A separate example: Someone ATTACKED (verb-past simple tense) the babies. (Active voice-- focus is on the attacker doing the action) The babies WERE ATTACKED (were + verb-past participle form) (by someone). (Passive voice -- focus is on the poor babies receiving the action) Hence, in your sentence 1, the emphasis is on the babies who were brought into this world by their (big and strong) mother. Sentence 2 is also written in the passive voice. A separate example: *The nurse had poisoned (past perfect tense) the babies, and they died (past simple tense). [Active voice] -The first part of the sentence before the comma (,) is written in active voice, as the focus is on the doer of an action: the nurse). -Past simple and past perfect tenses can be used together for comparing the sequence of past events -- past perfect tense is used to describe an earlier past action (i.e had poisoned) while the past simple tense is used to describe a later past action (i.e died). *The babies had BEEN poisoned by the nurse, and they died. [Passive voice] -had + "BEEN" + verb-past participle form is used to indicate that a sentence is now in passive voice, as the focus now switches to the receiver of an action-- the babies Hence, in your sentence 2, the emphasis is still on the babies who were brought into this world by their (big and strong) mother, as well as a sequence of past events. It seems that sentence 2 has a more specific meaning and should be the chosen answer. Having said that, in English, such a use of tenses may be unnecessary if the sequence can be inferred easily. In sentence 1, everyone can infer that someone has to be born first before they can die. Hence, sentence 1 appears less "cumbersome" and "were born" is a better answer. Hope this helps. Cheers

I met him yesterday but I had already spoken to him on the phone before. Hereis an example of the Past Perfect in use. It's to mention a past action before another past action. "I had spoken" happened before the action "I met him" this is how to use Past Perfect. So the example, Soon after they were born, they died is the correct version. Not to worry as the past perfect is not a tense that is often used. Enjoy.......

Either can be used, but to me "were" feels more natural. When "were born" is used, "born" is some time in the past and to me there is no real "stress" on this. It is also the simpler of the two. With "had been born", to me it stresses the fact that the child was born prior to their death. I am sure some people with stronger grammar knowledge can explain the exact difference for you.