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Question

Difficulty: MediumVerbs, Tenses, and Aspect

Which auxiliary verb correctly completes the sentence below?

Answer:No sooner 【had】 the newly appointed managing director taken office than a major financial crisis erupted.

Answer

had
When a sentence starts with the negative adverbial 'No sooner', subject-auxiliary inversion occurs and requires the past perfect auxiliary 'had' before the subject to match the past participle 'taken' and correlate with 'than' in the subsequent past clause.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the sentence structure and sequential relation of events.
The sentence begins with the restrictive negative adverbial phrase 'No sooner', which introduces an event preceding another past event ('erupted').
Negative adverbial openers demand subject-auxiliary inversion and require the past perfect tense to mark the earlier completed action.
2
Select the appropriate auxiliary verb to pair with the past participle 'taken'.
The auxiliary verb 'had' completes the past perfect aspect ('had taken').
The past perfect construction (had + past participle) paired with 'than + simple past' expresses an action that happened immediately before another past event.

Key Concept

Negative Inversion and Past Perfect Aspect ('No sooner had... than')
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Topics

Verbs, Tenses, and Aspect

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