Master come in please

Question

Tired and hungry, Henry went to open the door of the house. It was______ that he realized he didn't have the key.

(A)then (B)after (C)before (D)until

*Don't fill your answer quickly, please think twice before you do that. In my opinion, I think "It" can be the last sentence that "Tired and hungry~" based on this, I'll choose (D)untill that means Henry kept acting untill he found himself without the key. Yet, I think "It" can be the later sentence "that he realized~" according to this I'll choose (A)then that means Henry went to open the door and just at that time he found he didn't have the key.

So Please share your crucial opinion with me, that will be nice. Appreciate it.

Many of you said the two action happened at the same time. Yet what I gonna say is that I take "Tired and hungry, Henry went to open the door of the house." a independent situation.

So going for (D)until, it can mean this situaiton keep exsiting until he found himself without the key, in other words, the condition that he was going to open the door stopped since he found he didn't have the key to the lock.

Answer 1

Well, my answer is D "until."
The reason why I chose "D" came from my experience of reading.
It is very common to use "It was until that ......" in books or stories.

Grammatically, in my opinion, "It" in the second sentence means the priod of time that Henry did not know he does not have the key with him.

These are my reasons.

2007-01-29 23:42:49 補充：
Typing error: "priod"=>period
I meant "period of time"

Answer 2

The answer is (A) then, and here is why...
In "Tired and hungry, Henry went to open the door of the house. It was______ that he realized he didn't have the key.", "It" here is the substitution of the action "went to open the door of the house", and has nothing to do with "Tired and hungry" whatsoever.
We choose "then" it is because while performing such an action shortened by the "It" did Henry "realized he didn't have the key", what we are talking about is the moment here, two things happened at the same time, that is why it has to be "then" but no other.

Answer 3

Because I think that "went to open the door" & "he realized he didn't have the key" two things are the continuous cases, so I will go for then for my answer,
interesting question, :)