Complete the 12 sentences below. Choose the best answer for each one.
1Never before ............... such resistance from the board.
Wrong!
"Had the committee begun" is correct because fronted negative adverbials take subject-auxiliary inversion.
2Only after reading the full report ............... the seriousness of the issue.
Wrong!
"Did she realise" is correct because fronted "only after" requires inversion in the main clause.
3Not until the audit was complete ............... clear.
Wrong!
"Did the scale of the error become" is correct because fronted "not until" requires inversion in the main clause.
4Rarely ............... such a convincing performance.
Wrong!
"Have I seen" is correct because fronted "rarely" requires subject-auxiliary inversion.
5No sooner ............... than the emergency generator started.
Wrong!
"Had the lights gone out" is correct because the fixed pattern is "No sooner had + subject + past participle... than".
6Under no circumstances ............... permitted to disclose confidential data.
Wrong!
"Are employees" is correct because fronted negative expressions require subject-auxiliary inversion.
7Little ............... that the plan would collapse so quickly.
Wrong!
"Did he suspect" is correct because sentence-initial "little" meaning "not at all" takes inversion.
8Only when the final results arrived ............... to improve.
Wrong!
"Did the data begin" is correct because fronted "only when" requires inversion in the main clause.
9Seldom ............... so much public debate.
Wrong!
"Has a policy generated" is correct because fronted "seldom" requires subject-auxiliary inversion.
10Not only ............... his statement, but he also apologised publicly.
Wrong!
"Did the witness retract" is correct because fronted "not only" requires inversion in that clause.
11So intricate ............... that even the engineers struggled to explain it.
Wrong!
"Was the mechanism" is correct because formal result clauses can use inversion after fronted "so + adjective".
12............... the merger to fail, thousands of jobs would be at risk.
Wrong!
"Were" is correct because formal conditional inversion replaces "if the merger were to fail".
Done.
Score: 0/12
Answers
- Never before had the committee begun such resistance from the board.
- Only after reading the full report did she realise the seriousness of the issue.
- Not until the audit was complete did the scale of the error become clear.
- Rarely have I seen such a convincing performance.
- No sooner had the lights gone out than the emergency generator started.
- Under no circumstances are employees permitted to disclose confidential data.
- Little did he suspect that the plan would collapse so quickly.
- Only when the final results arrived did the data begin to improve.
- Seldom has a policy generated so much public debate.
- Not only did the witness retract his statement, but he also apologised publicly.
- So intricate was the mechanism that even the engineers struggled to explain it.
- Were the merger to fail, thousands of jobs would be at risk.
