Answer the following question below , the word in capital letters has the emphatic stress. Choose the option…

Analyze the question: In emphatic stress questions, the capitalised word is the focus of the sentence. The sentence is the answer to a question, and the stressed word is the new or corrected information. Here, DEVOURED is stressed, so the question must be about what the cat did to the rat.

Concept: Emphatic stress puts the spotlight on one word to show contrast, correction, or answer to a specific query. Ask yourself: "What question would make this sentence a natural reply?"

Step by step:

• A. Did the rat devour the cat? This would put the emphasis on who did it (the CAT or the RAT). The stress would be on "CAT", not "DEVOURED".
• B. What devoured the rat? This asks about the doer, so the stress would fall on "CAT".
• C. Did the cat eat the rat? This asks about the action. The reply "The cat DEVOURED the rat" stresses the verb, giving a stronger or more precise word than "eat". This matches the stress.
• D. Is this the rat that the cat devoured? This would focus on the rat's identity, so the stress would be on "RAT" or "THIS".

Answer: Only option C is about the action (eating/devouring), which is where the emphasis lies.

Tip: For emphatic stress questions, find the capitalised word, then pick the option whose question is about that same part of the sentence (subject, verb, object). Here, the stressed word is a verb, so choose the option that questions the action.