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Difficulty: EasyConjunctions and Clause Structure

Select the appropriate conjunction to complete the dependent clause in the sentence below.

Answer:Hardly had the research team published their findings 【when】 rival laboratories began attempting to replicate the experiment.

Answer

The conjunction 'when' (or 'before') correctly completes the correlative structure starting with 'Hardly'.
In standard English grammar, the restrictive adverb 'hardly' requires the subordinating conjunction 'when' (or 'before') to introduce the time clause that follows.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the introductory negative adverbial element.
The sentence opens with 'Hardly had', which triggers subject-auxiliary inversion.
Sentences starting with negative or restrictive adverbs require inversion in the main clause.
2
Apply the standard correlative conjunction rule.
The adverb 'hardly' correlates with 'when' (or 'before') to indicate that one event occurred immediately after another.
Using 'than' is ungrammatical here because 'than' strictly pairs with comparative adverbs such as 'no sooner'.

Key Concept

Correlative Conjunctions with Inverted Clauses
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Topics

Conjunctions and Clause Structure

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