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Question

Difficulty: EasyEmphatic Stress

Consider the following statement where the capitalized word carries the emphatic stress:

The CHEF prepared a delicious meal yesterday.

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

  1. Did the gardener prepare a delicious meal yesterday?Answer
  2. B
    Did the chef prepare a terrible meal yesterday?
  3. C
    Did the chef prepare a delicious meal last week?
  4. D
    Did the chef ruin a delicious meal yesterday?

Answer

Did the gardener prepare a delicious meal yesterday?
In Oral English, emphatic stress highlights a specific word to correct a misconception or contradict a false assumption made in a prior question. Because 'CHEF' is the capitalized word receiving emphasis, the appropriate question must propose a different subject (such as 'the gardener'). Responding with stress on 'CHEF' confirms that all other details of the action are true except for the subject questioned.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the capitalized word receiving emphatic stress in the given statement.
The word receiving emphatic stress is 'CHEF'.
Full capitalization in Oral English test stems marks contrastive emphatic stress.
2
Determine the contrastive focus required for the response.
Emphatic stress corrects an erroneous element in the preceding question while accepting the unaccented parts as accurate.
The correct question must question only the identity of the person who prepared the meal.
3
Evaluate the options to find the question that contradicts only the emphasized word.
Asking if the gardener prepared the meal explicitly contradicts 'CHEF' while keeping 'prepared a delicious meal yesterday' unchanged.
Substituting 'gardener' for 'chef' creates the precise contrast that triggers emphatic stress on 'CHEF'.

Key Concept

Emphatic Stress and Contrastive Focus
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Topics

Emphatic Stress

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