Chapter 12 — Inversions and advanced structures

The essentials in four points:

• Negative or restrictive adverb fronted → inversion: Not only did she meet…, Rarely has there been…, Only after… was the study published.
• So + adjective fronted → inversion: So violent was the eruption that…
• Reduced clause: Completed in 1889, the tower… (passive), While studying in Paris, she… (active).
• Apposition: The kiwi, a flightless bird of New Zealand, cannot fly — a noun phrase with no verb.
• Subjunctive after recommend / suggest / insist that: base form — that the curriculum be reviewed.

The last step before top scores: the structures that upset canonical order. Four families cover most difficult sentence-completion items: inversion, the reduced clause, the appositive and the subjunctive.

1. Inversion after a fronted negative or restrictive element. Not only, Rarely, Seldom, Never, Only after…, So + adjective at the start of the sentence → auxiliary before subject, as in a question.
✔ Not only did she meet the deadline… · ✔ Rarely has there been so much interest.
✔ So violent was the eruption that entire villages were buried. · ✔ Only after the results were verified was the study published.

2. The reduced clause. Both clauses share the same subject; the subordinate loses its subject and auxiliary. Passive meaning → past participle (Completed in 1889, the tower…); active meaning → -ing, often with while/when (While studying in Paris, she…).

3. The appositive. A verb-less noun phrase redescribes the neighbouring noun, between commas: The kiwi, a flightless bird of New Zealand, cannot fly. Any option containing a conjugated verb is wrong there.

4. The subjunctive (reminder). recommend / suggest / require / insist that + base form: …that the curriculum be reviewed every five years.