JUPEBUse of EnglishLexis and Structure

Choose the option that best completes the sentence. ___ had the chief invigilator announced the start of the paper than the generator failed.

AScarcely
BBarely
CNo soonerCORRECT
DHardly
AI
Toaster Teacher
Why the answer is C, and why the others tempt you.
'Than' in the second clause requires the comparative 'no sooner' in the first. 'Hardly', 'scarcely' and 'barely' are all followed by 'when', not 'than', so each of them produces an ungrammatical pairing with the given sentence.
Want this in Pidgin, Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa? Sign up free →

Practice more Use of English questions

JUPEB Use of English has thousands more questions like this — with Worked answers on every one.

Start practicing free →See all Use of English questions