Select the word that correctly completes the sentence:
Scarcely had the keynote speaker stepped onto the stage _____ the auditorium erupted into enthusiastic applause.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. when
- Step 1: In formal English syntax, the negative or restrictive adverbial 'scarcely' pairs correlatively with 'when' (or 'before') when introducing an immediate subsequent action.
- Step 2: Complete the correlative inversion structure: 'Scarcely had... when...'.
Answer
when.
Why not the others: 'than' is used with 'no sooner' (No sooner had... than...); 'then' is a temporal connective but cannot form this correlative inverted construction; 'that' creates a subordinate noun or result clause which is ungrammatical here.
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