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 question. The capitalised word, FOUR, carries the new or corrective information. The question that fits is the one where the number of baskets is the point being corrected or asked about, while everything else (the baskets, the room) is the same.

Concept

Emphatic stress is placed on the word that answers or corrects what was asked. If someone asks "Are there TWO baskets in the room?", the natural reply is "No, there are FOUR baskets in the room." The stressed word, FOUR, replaces the wrong detail (two).

Checking each option

• A. "Were are there four baskets in the room?" This is badly formed ("Were are"), and it asks about place, not number. It does not fit.
• B. "Are there two baskets in the room?" The number given in the question (two) is wrong. The reply stresses FOUR to correct it. This fits.
• C. "Are there four baskets in the room?" The question already says four. The natural answer would be "Yes, there are four," with no corrective stress on FOUR. The stress would more likely fall on "are" or "yes". This does not fit.
• D. "Are there four baskets in the store?" The detail in doubt is the place (store vs room), so the stress would fall on ROOM. This does not fit.

Answer

The stress on FOUR corrects the number "two" in option B, so the answer is B.

Tip

For emphatic stress questions, find the word in the question that differs from the capitalised word in the answer. The question that contains the different word at that position is the one the sentence is correcting. If the question already contains the stressed word unchanged, it is usually not the answer.