Complete the sentence: It wasn't long _________ tea bags started to become popular in countries outside America.

Complete the sentence: It wasn't long _________ tea bags started to become popular in countries outside America.

• A. Before
• B. After
• C. When
• D. Since

Answer: (A)

Not long before is a common way to talk about something happening soon after another event. In this sentence, it signals that the spread of tea bags to countries outside America happened fairly quickly after they began to become popular. That tight sense of sequence is why before fits best: it mirrors the idea of a quick progression in time. The other options don’t fit the natural pattern here. After would usually need a later clause to show what happened not long after something else, making the sentence feel incomplete. When doesn’t express a time sequence in this idiomatic way, and since would suggest a duration or a time since something, which changes the meaning.

Not long before is a common way to talk about something happening soon after another event. In this sentence, it signals that the spread of tea bags to countries outside America happened fairly quickly after they began to become popular. That tight sense of sequence is why before fits best: it mirrors the idea of a quick progression in time.

The other options don’t fit the natural pattern here. After would usually need a later clause to show what happened not long after something else, making the sentence feel incomplete. When doesn’t express a time sequence in this idiomatic way, and since would suggest a duration or a time since something, which changes the meaning.