WAEC 2020 English Language · Question 105

Comfort prepared a DELICIOUS meal.

Question

the word that receives the emphatic stress is written in capital letters. From the questions lettered A to D, choose the one to which the given sentence is the appropriate answer. Comfort prepared a DELICIOUS meal.

A.Did Comfort prepare a delicious snack?
B.Did Comfort prepare a tasteless meal?
C.Did Jummy prepare a delicious meal?
D.Did Comfort order a delicious meal?

Answer: B. Did Comfort prepare a tasteless meal?

Explanation written with AI and checked against the answer key

Analyze the question

This is an emphatic stress question. The capitalised word, DELICIOUS, carries the stress. Stress is placed on the word that contrasts with, or corrects, what the questioner assumed. So the sentence must answer a question that got the quality of the meal wrong.

Concept

Emphatic stress highlights new or corrective information. The stressed word is the part of the answer that differs from the question.

Step-by-step

Sentence: Comfort prepared a DELICIOUS meal.

A. "Did Comfort prepare a delicious snack?" The contrast would be on meal (not snack), so the stress would fall on MEAL.
B. "Did Comfort prepare a tasteless meal?" The questioner assumed the meal was tasteless. The answer corrects this: "No, she prepared a DELICIOUS meal." The stress falls on DELICIOUS, so this fits.
C. "Did Jummy prepare a delicious meal?" The contrast would be on the person, so the stress would be on COMFORT.
D. "Did Comfort order a delicious meal?" The contrast would be on the action, so the stress would be on PREPARED.

Answer

The only question where the differing element is the quality of the meal (tasteless versus delicious) is option B.

Note on the key

Exam tip

Find the capitalised word in the answer, then pick the question that contains a different word in that same position. That is the word being corrected.

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