NDA (II) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 21 of 150

Correct — B, 'barely'. 'Barely' means only just, by the narrowest margin, and it sets up the frame 'I had barely done X when Y happened', which puts two events almost on top of each other. That is exactly the picture the passage draws — the narrator has only just begun undressing after his journey when Gangu turns up at the door.

• (a)hardly — This is the closest rival, since 'hardly ... when' is idiomatic English too; its weight falls on how little was done rather than on how narrow the margin was, and the official key settles on 'barely'.
• (c)merely — 'Merely' means only or simply and belittles what follows; it has no partnership with the 'when' clause and leaves the two events unconnected in time.
• (d)rarely — 'Rarely' is about how often something happens, and the passage is describing one particular afternoon rather than a habit.

English marks two events treading on each other's heels with a past perfect verb, an adverb such as 'barely', 'hardly' or 'scarcely', and a following 'when' clause.

Two of the options can be thrown out at once because they answer a different question — 'merely' comments on how small an action was and 'rarely' on how often it occurs, and neither can hold hands with 'when'. That leaves two adverbs that both belong to the frame, and the item is genuinely tight there; the key marks 'barely', whose sense of only-just fits a man who has begun taking his clothes off and got no further. This is the first blank of a single passage printed once and then questioned blank by blank, so the whole extract is worth reading before answering any one of them.

• 'Hardly', 'scarcely' and 'barely' all take 'when' in this frame, while 'no sooner' takes 'than'.
• The verb before such an adverb is normally in the past perfect, as 'I had ... taken' is here.
• 'Merely' and 'rarely' belong to different jobs altogether — one limits, the other counts occasions.

• Choosing 'rarely', which turns a single occasion into a habit.
• Filling the blank without reading forward to the 'when' clause that decides it.

Asked as a selecting-words item — one passage is printed and each numbered blank in it is a separate question.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word that best fills the blank — 'We had _____ sat down when the bell rang.'

  • (a)rarely
  • (b)scarcely
  • (c)merely
  • (d)seldom

  Answer(b) scarcely — 'scarcely ... when' links two events that follow each other at once.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Choose the word that best fills the blank — 'No sooner had he spoken _____ the room fell silent.'

  • (a)when
  • (b)than
  • (c)then
  • (d)that

  Answer(b) than — 'no sooner' is followed by 'than', not by 'when'.