Consider the sentence: 'FATIMA bought the red bicycle yesterday.' Which question does this emphatic sentence answer?

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: D. Did Aisha buy the red bicycle yesterday?

  1. Step 1: Emphatic stress focuses contrast on the stressed capitalized word ('FATIMA'). Step 2. Emphasizing 'FATIMA' contrasts the actor/buyer against other possible individuals (e.g. Aisha). Answer: Did Aisha buy the red bicycle yesterday?. Why not the others: 'Did she sell...' emphasizes the verb 'bought'; 'Did she buy the blue...' emphasizes the adjective 'red'; 'Did she buy... last week' emphasizes the adverb 'yesterday'.

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