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Difficulty: MediumEmphatic Stress

In the sentence below, the word printed in full capital letters has the primary emphatic stress.

The lead architect SPONSORED the urban renewal project in Kaduna.

Which of the following questions is answered by the statement above?

  1. Did the lead architect reject the urban renewal project in Kaduna?Answer
  2. B
    Did the principal contractor sponsor the urban renewal project in Kaduna?
  3. C
    Did the lead architect sponsor the rural electrification scheme in Kaduna?
  4. D
    Did the lead architect sponsor the urban renewal project in Kano?

Answer

The statement answers the question 'Did the lead architect reject the urban renewal project in Kaduna?' because emphatic stress on the verb 'SPONSORED' contrasts the specific action performed against a contrasting action like rejecting or opposing.
In Oral English, emphatic stress is used to highlight or place contrastive focus on a specific word in a sentence. When stress is placed on the verb 'SPONSORED', the speaker is emphasizing the action performed to correct or deny an opposing action (such as 'rejecting' or 'opposing' the project). Therefore, the question asking if the lead architect rejected the project is the appropriate question answered by the statement.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the word carrying emphatic stress in the given sentence.
The word printed in capital letters is the main verb 'SPONSORED'.
Emphatic stress serves to place contrastive focus specifically on the capitalized item.
2
Determine the contrastive function of stressing a verb.
Stressing 'SPONSORED' implies that the action itself is being asserted or corrected against a conflicting action, while the subject, object, and location remain undisputed.
The correct contrastive question must keep all uncapitalized elements identical and change only the stressed element.
3
Evaluate the options to find the question that contradicts only the verb.
The question asking if the architect 'rejected' the project introduces a contrasting verb while preserving the rest of the sentence details exactly.
The sentence 'The lead architect SPONSORED the urban renewal project in Kaduna' serves as a direct emphatic response correcting 'rejected' to 'SPONSORED'.

Key Concept

Emphatic Stress and Contrastive Focus
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Topics

Emphatic Stress

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