The cat DEVOURED the rat — In each of the questions, the word in capital letters has the emphatic stress…

Analyze the question: The word in capitals (DEVOURED) carries the emphatic stress. In this type of question, the emphasised word is the new or contrasting information. The correct option is the question that the sentence answers, and that question must be about the action (the verb).

Concept: Emphatic stress corrects or answers a question about the stressed word. For example:

• "The CAT devoured the rat" answers "What devoured the rat?"
• "The cat devoured the RAT" answers "What did the cat devour?"
• "The cat DEVOURED the rat" answers "What did the cat do to the rat?" or corrects a wrong verb, such as "Did the cat pet the rat?"

Step-by-step check of the options:

• A. Did the rat devour the cat? This questions who did the eating, so it relates to stress on CAT or RAT, not on the verb.
• B. What devoured the rat? This asks about the subject, so the stress would fall on CAT.
• C. Did the cat pet the rat? The subject (cat) and object (rat) stay the same, and only the action differs (pet vs. devoured). The reply "The cat DEVOURED the rat" corrects the verb. This fits.
• D. Is this the rat that the cat devoured? This asks about the identity of the rat, so the stress would fall on RAT or THIS.

Answer: The emphasis on DEVOURED corrects the action, which matches option C.

Tip: Ask yourself, "Which part of the sentence is changing or being corrected in the question?" The word that differs from the question is the one that carries the emphatic stress. Here, "pet" becomes "DEVOURED."