39: 老师说只有否定句的反意疑问句才能用肯定形式，那么为什么“It scarcely rains in that area.”的反意疑问句是“is it”而不是“isn't it”呢？

Question 39: Our teacher told us only when a negative sentence's tag question can be in its positive form. Then why the tag question to the sentence "It scarcely rains in that area." is "is it" rather than "isn't it"?

Answer: "Seldom, hardly, scarcely, barely, few, little" are usually used for negation, so when they are used in a sentence, the tag part should be positive.
E.g. He seldom came to see his wife, did he?

问题39: 我们老师说只有否定句的反意疑问句才能用肯定形式，那么为什么“It scarcely rains in that area.”的反意疑问句是“is it”而不是“isn't it”呢？

回答: “seldom, hardly, scarcely, barely, few, little”通常用于表示否定，所以句子中出现这些词的时候，反意疑问句采用肯定的形式。
如：He seldom came to see his wife, did he?