Select the correct form for expressing cleft emphasis:
'______ that accelerated the global shift toward automated manufacturing.'
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. It was the pandemic
- Step 1: An 'it-cleft' sentence uses the structure 'It + be + emphasized element + that/who + clause' to place focus on a specific agent.
- Step 2: 'It was the pandemic that accelerated...' correctly isolates the pandemic as the primary catalyst.
Answer
It was the pandemic.
Why not the others: 'What the pandemic' requires a predicate verb phrase ('What the pandemic accelerated was...'); 'The pandemic it was' has incorrect word order; 'There was the pandemic' is an existential clause, not a cleft.
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