In the following questions, a sentence is given with a highlighted phrase in it. The highlighted phrase may/may not be grammatically correct. Choose the best alternative to replace the highlighted phrase so as to make the sentence grammatically and contextually correct. If no replacement is required, choose option E as your answer. Scarcely had the municipality introduced the new public welfare scheme when hundreds of rural families applied for official identification cards.

·         Rule: When a sentence starts with negative words like Scarcely or Hardly, the auxiliary verb comes before the subject (Inversion: Scarcely + had + subject + V3). Also, Scarcely is always paired with "when" . ·         Reasoning: The sentence already follows both rules correctly: it puts "had" before "the municipality" and pairs "Scarcely" with "when". No change is needed. ·         Elimination: o   (A) Incorrect because Scarcely pairs with "when", not "than" ("than" is used with No sooner). o   (B) Incorrect because it removes inversion (puts subject before verb). o   (C) Incorrect because "did" requires the base verb form "introduce", not "introduced". o   (D) Incorrect because Scarcely pairs with "when", not "then".