Select the correct option:
Barely ___ the announcement concluded when inquiries flooded the hotline.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The sentence is: “Barely ___ the announcement concluded when inquiries flooded the hotline.”
This follows an inversion structure used with words like barely, hardly, scarcely.
Correct structure: Barely/Hardly + had + subject + past participle + when…
So the correct sentence is:
“Barely had the announcement concluded when inquiries flooded the hotline.”
Why others are wrong:
B) has → present tense (incorrect here)
C) did → wrong structure
D) was → doesn’t fit grammar