Find the part of the sentence that contains an error: Rarely if ever have there been a time (1)/ when dissent was met (2)/ with such institutional disregard (3)/ as in the present administration. (4)

Correct — A. In a there sentence the verb agrees with the noun that follows it, and here that noun is a time, singular.

The opening Rarely if ever correctly puts the auxiliary before there, but the auxiliary must be singular:
Rarely if ever has there been a time

The plural have makes part (1) the error, option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  (2) — when dissent was met is correct. Dissent is an uncountable noun, so the singular was agrees, and when rightly introduces the clause describing a time.
• (c)
  (3) — with such institutional disregard completes the standard phrase be met with, begun in part (2), and such correctly takes an uncountable noun without a or an.
• (d)
  (4) — as in the present administration completes the such ... as comparison opened in part (3), so the pairing is correct.

A negative adverb at the front forces inversion. When Rarely, Seldom, Never or Hardly opens a sentence, the auxiliary comes before the subject: Rarely has he spoken so openly.

In a there-sentence, the verb agrees with the noun after it: there has been a delay, there have been delays. Inversion changes the order to has there been, but not the agreement, so a singular noun still needs has.

Key facts

• Sentence-initial Rarely, Seldom, Never, Hardly and Little take auxiliary-before-subject order.
• In there + be sentences, the verb agrees with the following noun: there has been a time, there have been times.
• Such takes no article before an uncountable noun (such disregard) and takes a before a singular countable noun (such a time).

Common traps

• Checking only the word order after Rarely and missing that the auxiliary is plural.
• Accepting have there been because it is familiar from questions like Have there been any delays?, where the noun is plural.

No directly related past PYQ was found.