In this question, the word in capital letters has the emphatic stress. Choose the option to which the given…

Analyze the question The capitalized word EMEKA carries the emphatic stress. In English, emphatic stress highlights the new or important information, which is the part that answers a question. So we need the question that "EMEKA finished his homework yesterday" would answer.

Concept Emphatic stress marks the answer to the question being asked:

• Stress on the person answers "Who...?"
• Stress on the time (YESTERDAY) answers "When...?"
• Stress on the action (FINISHED) answers "Did he finish or just start?"

Step-by-step

1. The stressed word is EMEKA, the subject (the doer of the action).
2. The sentence is therefore stressing who did it: it was Emeka, not someone else.
3. Check the options: • A. Who finished his homework yesterday? The answer is "EMEKA did." ✔ • B. When did Emeka finish his homework? The stress would be on YESTERDAY. ✘ • C. Did Emeka do his homework yesterday? This would stress FINISHED or YESTERDAY. ✘ • D. Was Emeka helped to do his homework? This would stress something like "by himself" or "helped". ✘

Tip In emphatic stress questions, find the capitalized word and ask: "What question does this word answer?" Names and subjects usually point to "Who", times to "When", places to "Where", and things to "What".