WAEC 2021 English Language · Question 13

The THIRD-YEAR girls were commended by the principal.

Question

From the questions lettered A to D, choose the one to which the given sentence is the appropriate answer. The THIRD-YEAR girls were commended by the principal.

A.Were the third-year girls reprimanded by the principal?
B.Were the third-year girls commended by the doctor?
C.Were the third-year boys commended by the principal?
D.Were the first-year girls commended by the principal?

Answer: D. Were the first-year girls commended by the principal?

Explanation written with AI and checked against the answer key

Analyze the question

This is an emphasis and interrogation question. In the given sentence, the words THIRD-YEAR are in capital letters. Capitals show emphatic stress, so the sentence is correcting or answering a question that got that detail wrong.

Concept

The emphasised word is the part of the sentence that differs from what the questioner assumed. The rest of the sentence repeats information already present in the question. So you must find the question that wrongly contained something else where "third-year" now stands.

Step-by-step solution

The sentence is: The THIRD-YEAR girls were commended by the principal.

A. "reprimanded" would be corrected by stressing commended, not THIRD-YEAR. ✗
B. "doctor" would be corrected by stressing principal. ✗
C. "boys" would be corrected by stressing girls. ✗
D. "first-year girls" is the only question with a wrong year group. The reply stresses THIRD-YEAR to correct it: "No, the THIRD-YEAR girls were commended by the principal." ✓

Answer: D

Tip: In emphasis questions, find the capitalised word and look for the option that differs from the sentence only in that one detail. The question holds the wrong information, and the stressed word in the answer is the correction.

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