In the following sentence, the word that receives the emphatic stress is written in capital letters. From the…

Analyze the question

This is an emphatic stress (focus) question in Oral English. The word in capitals, SEATS, carries the stress. The stressed word is the new or corrected information. The other words repeat what was already said in the question.

The concept

Emphatic stress usually corrects or specifies one part of a previous statement. So the correct question is the one that is the same as the answer in every part except the stressed word.

Sentence: Some students arranged the SEATS.

• Unchanged (given) information: some students, arranged
• Stressed (new) information: seats

So the matching question should contain "some students arranged the ..." with a different object, so that "SEATS" corrects it.

Test each option

• A. "Did all the students arrange the seats?" This would be answered with stress on SOME, not SEATS.
• B. "Did some teacher arrange the seats?" This would be answered with stress on STUDENTS.
• C. "Did some students arrange the books?" The subject and verb match, and only the object differs (books → seats). The answer stresses SEATS, which is correct.
• D. "Did some students break the seats?" This would be answered with stress on ARRANGED.

Answer: C

Tip: Find the word in the question that differs from the answer. The answer's stress falls on that corrected word. If the capitalized word is "seats" and the question has "books," that is your match.