I agree, the difference between simple and perfect tenses can be rather tricky... 1) I was upset. I HAD FORGOTTEN my bag in the car. It's "had" because what occurred was: a. You forgot your bag in the car. b. You SUBSEQUENTLY became upset. It's because the forgetting of the bag happened before the getting upset. If you used the simple past, it would sound as if the two things had happened around the same time - or even, because of the order of the sentence, as if you were upset before you forgot the bag. 2) I’m very happy working as a lawyer, but I HAD WANTED to be a rock star when I was younger. Well, as far as I'm concerned, this one could indeed be "wanted" - because it says "when I was younger", which makes the time clear. Still, "had" is strictly speaking more correct because of the order of events as described in (1) above. 3) Leonardo Da Vinci PAINTED the Mona Lisa. You can't use "has painted", I'm afraid. One function of the present perfect is to draw attention to the impact of this event on the present situation, and that's not the case here. (Eg. "now that Leonardo has painted the Mona Lisa, I can go to sleep" - which doesn't make much sense.) 4) Had you been to Africa? This sentence could only be used in very specific cases, again according to the time rule in sentence (1), and probably needs a time modifier such as "before" or "previously". If you were talking about a particular time, and wanted to say "were you ever in Africa before that time?" then you could use this sentence. Eg. A: My daughter got married in Kenya last year. B: Oh really? Why? A: Well, we used to live there when we were younger. We came to England before my daughter was born though. B: Had she ever been to Africa previously? If you're just saying this sentence on its own, you're right, you would say "Have you been to Africa?"

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