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Difficulty: MediumEmphatic Stress

Read the statement containing emphatic stress below and complete the contrastive question that correctly elicits it.

Answer:Statement: The astronomer observed a DISTANT galaxy through the observatory telescope.
Contrastive question: Did the astronomer observe a 【nearby】 galaxy through the observatory telescope?

Answer

An adjective providing a contrasting modifier for the noun 'galaxy' (such as 'nearby' or 'close') placed in the blank of the contrastive question.
In Oral English, emphatic stress indicates contrastive focus. To elicit a sentence where 'DISTANT' is stressed, the contrastive question must query the adjective modifying the galaxy while keeping the rest of the sentence identical. Replacing 'DISTANT' with a contrasting adjective like 'nearby' or 'close' makes the given sentence the natural corrective response.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the word carrying emphatic stress in the statement.
The word printed in full capital letters is 'DISTANT', which functions as an adjective modifying 'galaxy'.
Emphatic stress highlights the specific element being focused on or contrasted in the sentence.
2
Apply the rule of contrastive focus to construct the eliciting question.
The correct contrastive question must change ONLY the capitalized word ('DISTANT') while retaining all other grammatical elements unchanged.
Placing emphatic stress on 'DISTANT' contradicts a wrong assertion regarding the proximity of the galaxy.
3
Complete the missing word in the contrastive question.
Inserting an antonymous or contrasting adjective such as 'nearby' or 'close' creates the precise question that is answered by emphasizing 'DISTANT'.
Asking 'Did the astronomer observe a nearby galaxy...?' is naturally contradicted by 'No, the astronomer observed a DISTANT galaxy...'.

Key Concept

Emphatic Stress and Contrastive Focus
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Topics

Emphatic Stress

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