The word in capital letters has the emphatic stress. Choose the option to which the given stress relates. My…

Analyze the question

In the sentence "My mother is expected to be back by this time TOMORROW", the emphasis falls on the word tomorrow. Emphatic stress highlights the part of the sentence that answers a question or corrects a contrasting idea. So we need the option whose question is about when (the time frame), with tomorrow as the focus.

Concept

Emphatic stress (contrastive focus) marks the new or corrected information. The stressed word is the answer to the implied question:

• Stress on mother answers "Who is expected back?"
• Stress on expected answers "Is she assumed/expected?"
• Stress on back answers "Is she expected back or gone?"
• Stress on tomorrow answers "When is she expected back? Tomorrow, or some other day or time?"

Step-by-step solution

• A. "Who is expected back...?" This targets mother, not tomorrow. ✗
• B. "Is my mother expected back by this time next month?" This questions the time (next month), and the reply "No, by this time TOMORROW" corrects it. The stress falls on the time word. ✓
• C. "Is my mother assumed back...?" This targets expected. ✗
• D. "Is my mother expected gone...?" This targets back. ✗

Answer: B. The stressed word TOMORROW contrasts with next month, so the sentence corrects the time being asked about.

Tip: In emphatic stress questions, find the word in capitals, then look for the option that changes only that part of the sentence. The option that keeps everything else the same and swaps just the capitalised idea is usually correct. Here, only the time (tomorrow → next month) is different in B.