Hardly ______ the laboratory building when the fire alarm sounded loudly throughout the campus.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. had she entered
- Step 1: Apply negative inversion rule: When a sentence begins with a limiting or negative adverb like 'Hardly', 'Scarcely', or 'Barely', subject-auxiliary inversion is mandatory.
- Step 2: The past perfect structure requires the auxiliary verb before the subject: 'had she entered'.
Answer
had she entered.
Why not the others: 'she had entered' fails to invert subject and verb; 'did she entered' uses ungrammatical double past tense; 'she was entering' lacks inversion and past perfect aspect.
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