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Difficulty: HardConjunctions and Clause Structure

Which of the following conjunctions correctly completes the sentence below?

'_______ hard the legal team argued during the appeal hearing, the presiding judge refused to overturn the initial ruling.'

  1. HoweverAnswer
  2. B
    Although
  3. C
    Whatever
  4. D
    Despite

Answer

However
The word 'however' functions as a subordinating conjunction expressing concession of degree when followed by an adjective or adverb ('however + adverb/adjective + subject + verb'). In this context, it correctly qualifies 'hard' to mean 'no matter how hard'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the syntactic structure of the dependent clause
The blank is positioned immediately before the adverb 'hard', which is followed by the subject 'the legal team' and the verb 'argued'.
Identifying the fronted adverb determines which connective element can grammatically introduce the clause.
2
Evaluate conjunction requirements for fronted adverbs of degree
The word 'however' acts as a subordinating conjunction expressing degree of concession when paired directly with an adjective or adverb ('however + adverb + subject + verb').
'Although' would require standard word order ('Although the legal team argued hard...'), while 'despite' is a preposition and 'whatever' modifies noun structures.
3
Confirm semantic and grammatical alignment
'However' properly forms the concessive clause indicating that regardless of how forcefully the team argued, the judge did not alter the verdict.
This preserves both formal clause syntax and the intended concessive meaning.

Key Concept

Concessive Clause Structure with Fronted Adverbs
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Topics

Conjunctions and Clause Structure

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