Daddy plays TENNIS on Saturday afternoons

Analyze the question

This is an emphatic stress question. The capitalized word, TENNIS, carries the stress. That word is the new or corrected information in the answer. So the question it answers must have asked about something different at that position, and everything else in it should match the statement.

Explain the concept

Emphatic stress highlights the part of a sentence that answers or corrects what was asked. If the answer says "Daddy plays TENNIS...", the question must have named a different game, such as cricket, football or golf. The rest of the question (who plays, and when) stays the same.

Step-by-step solution

The statement is: Daddy plays TENNIS on Saturday afternoons.

Compare each option with it:

• A. "Does mummy play tennis...?" The difference is the person. The stress would fall on DADDY, so this is wrong.
• B. "Does daddy play tennis on Sunday afternoons?" The difference is the day. The stress would fall on SATURDAY, so this is wrong.
• C. "Does daddy play tennis on Saturday morning?" The difference is the time of day. The stress would fall on AFTERNOONS, so this is wrong.
• D. "Does daddy play cricket on Saturday afternoon?" The difference is the game (cricket, not tennis). The stress falls on TENNIS, so this is correct.

Answer: D. Only option D asks about a different sport, which "TENNIS" corrects.

Tip: Find the capitalized word, then look for the option that differs from the statement at exactly that word. The option that already contains the stressed word (as A, B and C all contain "tennis") is usually wrong, because the stress is correcting something else.