Select the most appropriate option to substitute the bracketed segment in the given sentence. If there is no need to substitute it, 'no substitution required'.
(Hardly did ink dried on my weekly column, when) one of my readers called me.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
The correct answer is option 4 i.e. Hardly had the ink dried on last week's column, when.
- This option corrects the structure by using the correct past perfect tense ("had... dried") after "hardly," implying that one action (the ink drying) occurred immediately before another (a reader calling).
- Inversion ("Hardly had...") is needed when "Hardly" starts the sentence, making "Hardly had the ink dried" grammatically correct.
- The term "last week's column" specifies the time frame for the action.