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Difficulty: MediumEmphatic Stress

In the statement below, the word printed in CAPITAL letters has the primary emphatic stress.

The defense attorney cross-examined the key witness BEFORE noon.

Which of the following questions elicits the statement above?

  1. A
    Did the presiding judge cross-examine the key witness before noon?
  2. Did the defense attorney cross-examine the key witness after noon?Answer
  3. C
    Did the defense attorney cross-examine the hostile witness before noon?
  4. D
    Did the defense attorney brief the key witness before noon?

Answer

Did the defense attorney cross-examine the key witness after noon?
Emphatic stress is placed on the capitalized preposition 'BEFORE' to emphasize the time of the action. The appropriate contrastive question must disagree with or query only this specific temporal element while keeping the rest of the sentence constant. Asking whether the action took place 'after noon' directly elicits the emphatic response highlighting 'BEFORE noon'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the word with emphatic stress
The word 'BEFORE' is capitalized, showing that stress is placed on the time frame.
Emphatic stress highlights or contrasts the specific word emphasized in the sentence.
2
Determine the correct contrastive question
The correct response must ask a question that contradicts 'BEFORE' (e.g., asking if it occurred 'after' noon), while preserving all other information in the original sentence.
In JAMB UTME emphatic stress items, the proper prompt/question differs only at the point of emphasis.

Key Concept

Emphatic Stress and Contrastive Focus
Estimated Time:45s
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Topics

Emphatic Stress

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