Briefly before........?

Question

Please look at the following question.

"Ms. Lee complained that she had talked with the customer service representative ____ before being put on hold for ten minutes."
a. promptly b. totally c. briefly d. exactly

I'm not sure what is the correct answer.I think it looks "c.briefly.The words of "for a while" should be needed in my idea.By the way,I couldn't understand the meaning of the sentence.Is it that after she had talked with a representative,she had to wait for 10 minutes?Don't they have to put "after" instead of "before.Since she already talked, why did she have to wait?Could you explain to me the exact meaning of the sentence?

Thanks in advance.

Clive · Accepted Answer

None of these choices are natural., although I'm sure that C is the answer they want.

But the person would not complain about talking briefly. Sometimes a brief talk is good. She would complain about talking 'only briefly'. This makes it clear that she wanted to talk longer.

eg Mary talked to Tom before being put on hold. This means she talked to Tom first, then was on hold.

eg Mary talked to Tom after being put on hold. This means first on hold, then she talked to Tom.

It's not unusual to talk to someone and then be put on hold.. eg Maybe the other person has to answer another phone call, or go and look up some information.

Clive

Son James · Answer

Ah~ I see. Thank you so much,Mr.Clive.

Briefly before........?

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