Select the most more appropriate option to fill in the blank.

We were so late we _____ had time to catch the train.

hardly

The most appropriate option to fill in the blank is hardly.

The sentence "We were so late we hardly had time to catch the train" means that we were so late that we almost didn't have time to catch the train. The word "hardly" is the most appropriate word to use in the blank because it accurately reflects the fact that we didn't have much time to catch the train.

The other options are not as appropriate.

• The word "nearly" means almost. This does not make sense in the context of the sentence, as we did not almost have time to catch the train, we didn't have much time to catch the train.
• The word "completely" means entirely. This does not make sense in the context of the sentence, as we did have some time to catch the train, it was just very little time.
• The word "simply" means just. This does not make sense in the context of the sentence, as there was nothing simple about the fact that we didn't have much time to catch the train.