Select the correct negative inversion construction: 'Rarely ______ such rapid technological integration within a single decade.'
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. has a society witnessed
- Step 1: When a sentence begins with a negative or restrictive adverbial expression (e.g., rarely, seldom, scarcely, never):
- Step 2: Subject-auxiliary inversion is mandatory (Auxiliary + Subject + Main Verb).
- Step 3: Therefore, 'has' (auxiliary) + 'a society' (subject) + 'witnessed' (past participle) is the only correct structure.
Answer
has a society witnessed.
Why not the others: 'a society has witnessed' maintains standard non-inverted word order, which is ungrammatical after initial 'Rarely'; 'witnessed a society' inverts without an auxiliary verb; 'a society had witnessed' fails to invert the subject and auxiliary.
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