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Difficulty: EasyEmphatic Stress

Read the statement below in which the word printed in CAPITAL LETTERS carries emphatic stress. Then complete the contrastive question that correctly elicits this statement by filling in the blank with an appropriate contrasting noun.

Answer:Statement: The talented pianist played the HARPSICHORD during the evening concert.

Contrastive question: Did the talented pianist play the 【violin】 during the evening concert?

Answer

Any noun that contrasts with 'HARPSICHORD' (such as 'violin', 'piano', or 'flute') correctly completes the contrastive question.
In Oral English, emphatic stress highlights a specific word in a sentence for contrast. When a speaker emphasizes 'HARPSICHORD', they are emphasizing the specific instrument played rather than who played it, what action was taken, or when it occurred. The appropriate contrastive question must therefore introduce a different, contrasting instrument in place of the stressed word to prompt the given statement as a corrective response.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the capitalized word carrying emphatic stress in the statement.
The word carrying emphatic stress is 'HARPSICHORD', which functions as the direct object noun indicating the instrument.
Emphatic stress places contrastive focus specifically on the emphasized word while keeping all other information unchanged.
2
Formulate a contrastive question that questions only the stressed information.
The question must keep the subject ('the talented pianist'), verb ('play'), and time adjunct ('during the evening concert') identical, substituting only the direct object noun 'HARPSICHORD' with a contrasting musical instrument.
Answering 'No, the talented pianist played the HARPSICHORD...' resolves the disagreement introduced by questioning the wrong instrument.

Key Concept

Emphatic Stress in Oral English
Estimated Time:45s
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Topics

Emphatic Stress

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