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Question

Difficulty: MediumEmphatic Stress

In the sentence below, the word printed in CAPITAL letters has the primary emphatic stress:

The environmental agency RELUCTANTLY fined the multinational oil company after the spill.

Which of the following contrastive questions elicits this statement as an appropriate response?

  1. A
    Did the federal ministry reluctantly fine the multinational oil company after the spill?
  2. Did the environmental agency willingly fine the multinational oil company after the spill?Answer
  3. C
    Did the environmental agency reluctantly fine the local fishing firm after the spill?
  4. D
    Did the environmental agency reluctantly pardon the multinational oil company after the spill?

Answer

Did the environmental agency willingly fine the multinational oil company after the spill?
The question 'Did the environmental agency willingly fine the multinational oil company after the spill?' is correct because it asks about the manner of the action using 'willingly'. The given response uses emphatic stress on 'RELUCTANTLY' to contradict 'willingly' while leaving all other details of the sentence unchanged.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the word with emphatic stress in the sentence.
The word with emphatic stress is 'RELUCTANTLY', which functions as an adverb of manner.
In Oral English emphatic stress items, the capitalized word highlights the exact piece of information being emphasized or contradicted.
2
Determine what element the contrastive question must challenge.
The correct contrastive question must question or contradict ONLY the manner ('RELUCTANTLY' vs 'willingly' or 'eagerly'), while keeping all other components (subject, main verb, object, time adjunct) intact.
Emphatic stress provides a contrastive focus specifically against the questioned alternative.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the question that contradicts the stressed adverb.
The question 'Did the environmental agency willingly fine the multinational oil company after the spill?' introduces the contrasting manner 'willingly', making the original sentence with emphasized 'RELUCTANTLY' the precise corrective response.
All other choices question uncapitalized words in the sentence.

Key Concept

Emphatic stress (contrastive focus) is used to highlight a specific word in a statement to contradict or correct a point introduced in a contrastive question.
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Emphatic Stress

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