I'd love you to take a look at this task. It is taken from "Olimpiada" by H. Krzyżanowski....
1. He organized his speech around the most important things he __________ as a freshman
My answer is D: "wished he had been told",
which to my mind suggests that the man organized his speech on the basis of his past experiences. More precisely: what he was planning to say were things he'd like to hear as a freshman, because when he was the new guy no one told him that, and he
wished we had been told that, which would have had a positive impact upon him. But no one did back then and "now" (let's suppose we're in his shoes just about the time he was planning it) he wants to share important things he has learnt the hard way! As we do not change tenses after "wish" (wish changes into "wished", but the tesnss after it don't) the answer that is said to be correct in the key :
"wished he had told" does not make sense to me at all. Let's imagine the following situation:
The guy is organizing his speech. He can't be the new guy, he must be someone who's experienced enough to prepare the speech in the fisrt place, am I wrong? And hi thinks to himself " I wish I had told that" or even, supposing we actually can change the tenses - I wish I told that (which is probably wrong, but let's say..) IT JUST DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.
Please account for the way of thinking mr Krzyżanowski represents, because I'm lost here. What on earth is that supposed to mean??
Not to mention the fact that another sentence in this olimpiada has to be filled in with "twice bigger than the basketball" according to the key... Never heard of that :)