Emphasis Cleft Sentences

Respuesta correcta: A) That fear, and not shyness, was the reason Diego stayed quiet.

• A) That fear, and not shyness, was the reason Diego stayed quiet.Correct! A cleft sentence splits the given and the new information so that the element after 'that' becomes the focus of the message.
• B) That Diego was silent, with no reason given at all.The cleft always names a cause, so it does not leave the reason out; here the reason is stated explicitly.
• C) That fear is a feeling that nobody can explain.The structure says nothing about whether fear can be explained; it only assigns the role of cause.
• D) That the silence happened before fear was felt.The sentence describes the cause of the silence, not the order in which fear and silence appeared.

Respuesta correcta: C) It was last year that the new wing opened in the capital.

• A) Last year, the new wing was opened in the capital.This only moves the time to the front; it does not build the cleft frame at all.
• B) The new wing was what opened last year in the capital.'Was what opened' is a pseudo-cleft built on 'what', and it keeps 'last year' in a weak position.
• C) It was last year that the new wing opened in the capital.Correct! The cleft places 'last year' after 'that', making the time the element the reader focuses on.
• D) It was the new wing that opened in the capital last year.This cleft stresses the wing instead of the date, so it answers a different question than the one intended.

Respuesta correcta: B) It was Mr. Vargas who repaired the roof of the school.

• A) The roof of the school was repaired last month.This is a plain passive with no emphasis structure, so the agent disappears from the message.
• B) It was Mr. Vargas who repaired the roof of the school.Correct! The cleft frame with 'who' places the agent in the focus position and makes him the new information.
• C) It was the roof of the school that Mr. Vargas repaired.Here the focus falls on the roof, which was already obvious, so the agent is buried in the background.
• D) Mr. Vargas repaired the roof of the school last month.The agent is in subject position, but no cleft structure directs the reader's attention to him.

Respuesta correcta: D) Because the second uses the what-cleft to put the focus on what was obtained.

• A) Because the first sentence contains a negation, which is always ungrammatical.Negation is fully grammatical; it simply does not help the reader see what the emphasis should be.
• B) Because the second sentence changes the meaning of the word 'scholarship'.Both sentences refer to the same prize, so the noun has not changed its meaning at all.
• C) Because the first sentence is too short to carry a complete message.Length is not what makes a sentence clear, and eleven words are enough for a complete message.
• D) Because the second uses the what-cleft to put the focus on what was obtained.Correct! The what-cleft isolates the obtained element as the focus, which the negative statement leaves buried.

Respuesta correcta: C) "What did you write?" - "It was the letter that I wrote."

• A) "When did you finish?" - "It was at noon that I finished it."This cleft answers a question about the cause, because it emphasizes 'because I was tired', not the time.
• B) "Why did you leave?" - "It was because I was tired that I left."The cleft here emphasizes the reason, which is correct for the 'why' question.
• C) "What did you write?" - "It was the letter that I wrote."Correct! The original question asks what the action produced, and this cleft names exactly that thing.
• D) "Who paid the bill?" - "It was the bill that I paid."The focus lands on the bill, which answers a question about the object acted upon, not about the person paying.

Respuesta correcta: B) That the place where she spent her childhood was Limon.

• A) That she spent part of her childhood somewhere.This is too general; the cleft is built precisely to say more than the listener could already assume.
• B) That the place where she spent her childhood was Limon.Correct! The focus slot after 'that' names the place, so the place is what the sentence updates in the listener's mind.
• C) That Limon is a place where children often live.The sentence makes a claim about her, not a generalization about children in Limon.
• D) That she does not live in Limon anymore.Nothing in the sentence mentions her present address, so no conclusion about moving away is supported.

Respuesta correcta: A) They keep the same propositional content as the plain sentence but move the emphasis.

• A) They keep the same propositional content as the plain sentence but move the emphasis.Correct! A cleft preserves what is asserted and changes only which part of it the reader attends to.
• B) They add new facts that the plain sentence does not contain.Adding information would make it a different sentence, whereas a cleft only reorganizes the same claim.
• C) They can only be used with past-tense verbs in formal writing.Clefts work in every tense and in speech as well as in writing, so the tense restriction is invented.
• D) They are always longer than the ordinary sentence they replace.The extra words are grammatical function words, and the real length varies with the element being focused.

Respuesta correcta: D) It was only after the church that the two trails diverged.

• A) It was the two trails that diverged only after the church.This cleft focuses the trails themselves, so the timing of the divergence is left in the background.
• B) The two trails diverged only after the church was passed.This is a plain passive, and 'was passed' also adds a passive meaning the original never had.
• C) After the church, the two trails were the ones that diverged.Moving 'after the church' to the front stresses the place, not the fact that the order of events matters.
• D) It was only after the church that the two trails diverged.Correct! 'Only' stays inside the focus, so the cleft emphasises exactly the restriction on the timing.

Respuesta correcta: C) Because the cleft places the wanted thing in the focus slot and gives the message a deliberate rhythm.

• A) Because the what-cleft is required after the verb 'want' in English.No such rule exists; a plain clause after 'want' is perfectly grammatical and is in fact more common.
• B) Because the plain sentence is grammatically incorrect without a relative clause.The plain sentence is correct, and no relative clause is needed at all to make it well formed.
• C) Because the cleft places the wanted thing in the focus slot and gives the message a deliberate rhythm.Correct! The cleft singles out what is wanted, and the parallel of 'What ... is ...' gives the line a marked emphasis.
• D) Because the what-cleft shortens the message and removes the verb 'want' from the sentence.The what-cleft keeps the verb 'want' inside the sentence, so it removes nothing and adds words instead.

Respuesta correcta: B) It was the distance, not the roads, that made the walk hard.

• A) The students who live in Santa Ana walk to school.This states a fact with no emphasis structure, so it corrects nothing in the reader's mind.
• B) It was the distance, not the roads, that made the walk hard.Correct! The cleft names the real cause and explicitly rejects the assumption that roads were the problem.
• C) The walk to school was hard because of the distance.This gives the same cause as a plain subordinate clause, with no correction of the reader's assumption.
• D) What made the walk hard was the students who live in Santa Ana.This focuses the students, which answers a different question from the one about what made the walk hard.

Respuesta correcta: B) Only the emphasis changes; both sentences assert the same facts.

• A) The agent changes, because the subject moves out of the first position.The agent is named in the cleft clause, so she is exactly as clear in both sentences.
• B) Only the emphasis changes; both sentences assert the same facts.Correct! A cleft reorganises the information without adding or removing any proposition.
• C) The tense changes, because the cleft form cannot keep the present simple.The cleft works with any tense, so the present simple is fully preserved.
• D) A new fact appears, because the cleft reports an intention the plain sentence lacks.Nothing in either sentence speaks about intentions, so no new fact can be read into the cleft.

Respuesta correcta: A) It was compulsory that every visitor join the guided tour.

• A) It was compulsory that every visitor join the guided tour.Correct! This cleft puts the compulsory nature in the focus slot, which is exactly the assumption the reader must drop.
• B) The guided tour was compulsory for every visitor.This states the same fact as a plain sentence, so the visitor's mistaken assumption is not explicitly corrected.
• C) Every visitor had to join the guided tour, it was compulsory.Repeating the statement in two clauses adds no contrast, so it does not function as a correction.
• D) It was the guided tour that every visitor might skip.'Might skip' reverses the meaning and would confirm the very assumption the speaker is denying.

Respuesta correcta: D) A following verb phrase by itself, with its subject left out: "It was ran that they did."

• A) A subject: "It was Maria who called."Subjects move into the cleft focus without difficulty, as in the it-cleft with 'who' or 'that'.
• B) An object: "It was the medal that she won."Objects are the commonest focus in cleft sentences, which is exactly how they correct a wrong assumption.
• C) An adverbial of time: "It was in 1990 that they moved."Time expressions sit comfortably after 'that', which is how a writer stresses a date rather than an event.
• D) A following verb phrase by itself, with its subject left out: "It was ran that they did."Correct! A verb cannot be focused on its own: the cleft always needs a subject in that clause, as in 'It was running that she did'.

Respuesta correcta: C) The first introduces a new entity, while the second presupposes one and highlights the schedule.

• A) They are interchangeable, because both say a problem exists somewhere.They are not interchangeable, since the second rejects the assumption that the schedule itself was the problem.
• B) The first names the problem and the second names the schedule as the thing that is problematic.Both sentences name the schedule, but the first makes no claim about what is wrong with it.
• C) The first introduces a new entity, while the second presupposes one and highlights the schedule.Correct! An existential 'there' sentence presents the problem as newly given, while the cleft takes the schedule as shared and makes it the focus.
• D) The first is a question and the second is an answer about the same topic.Neither sentence is a question; the difference lies in information structure, not in the speech act involved.

Respuesta correcta: D) They mark the element the writer assumes the listener already has, so they are used to correct a shared assumption.

• A) They are optional decorations that may be added or removed without changing what is said.Removing a cleft removes the emphasis and often the correction, so the two forms are not equivalent.
• B) They are only correct in speech, since written English prefers the unmarked order.Cleft sentences are common in formal writing precisely because they carry an explicit corrective force.
• C) They replace relative clauses, so using one removes the need for a relative pronoun.The cleft itself contains a relative clause, so it does not remove the need for a relative pronoun or 'that'.
• D) They mark the element the writer assumes the listener already has, so they are used to correct a shared assumption.Correct! The cleft contrasts a background the listener already has with one element placed in the focus to be corrected or stressed.

Respuesta correcta: B) To correct a likely assumption that the marks were spread evenly across the sections.

• A) Because cleft sentences are shorter and therefore leave more room on the paper.Length has nothing to do with it; the sentence is in fact longer than the plain version it replaces.
• B) To correct a likely assumption that the marks were spread evenly across the sections.Correct! The cleft corrects the reader's expectation by putting the section in the focus position.
• C) Because passive voice is forbidden in any formal document.No such prohibition exists, and the sentence uses no passive at all.
• D) Because the number of marks can only be expressed in a cleft structure.A cleft focus must be a noun phrase, phrase or adverbial, and never the bare conjunction 'that'.

Respuesta correcta: C) It was the rain that caused the cancellation.

• A) It was caused the rain that the cancellation.The word order is broken, since 'caused' must stay in the relative clause and the focus must be a noun phrase.
• B) The rain it was that caused the cancellation.The subject pronoun 'it' can only fill the empty subject of the cleft, never the focus slot.
• C) It was the rain that caused the cancellation.Correct! The focus slot after 'that' receives the noun phrase naming the cause, with the rest as background.
• D) It was that the rain caused the cancellation.A cleft focus must be a noun phrase, phrase or adverbial, never the bare conjunction 'that'.

Respuesta correcta: D) It was Carlos who fixed the printer yesterday.

• A) Was it Carlos who fixed the printer yesterday?A tag question is a different device: it seeks confirmation instead of asserting the focus.
• B) Carlos did fix the printer yesterday.'Did fix' is a mild intensifier on the adverb, not a structure that isolates the subject.
• C) Carlos fixed the printer yesterday.This is the unmarked order, so the subject receives no special attention at all.
• D) It was Carlos who fixed the printer yesterday.Correct! The cleft places the name in the focus position, which is the standard English way to mark a subject as the emphasised element.

Respuesta correcta: A) The it-cleft uses 'It is X that', while the what-cleft uses 'What X was', and both focus one element.

• A) The it-cleft uses 'It is X that', while the what-cleft uses 'What X was', and both focus one element.Correct! Both patterns isolate a single element, and the choice between them is driven by register and rhythm rather than by what can be focused.
• B) Only the it-cleft can be used with a subject; the what-cleft is restricted to objects.Both patterns accept subjects, objects and adverbials, so the restriction invented here does not exist.
• C) The what-cleft requires a question form, and the it-cleft requires an exclamation.Neither pattern requires a question or an exclamation; both are ordinary declarative statements.
• D) They are dialectal variants with no difference in the information they carry.The two are not dialect variants: they carry different presuppositions about what the listener already knows.

Respuesta correcta: B) Using clefts in both halves repeats the same device and weakens the emphasis by making it predictable.

• A) The sentence is invalid because it places two what-clefts in a single sentence.There is no rule against two clefts in a sentence, so the claim about validity is false.
• B) Using clefts in both halves repeats the same device and weakens the emphasis by making it predictable.Correct! A marked device used twice in a row stops marking anything, so the emphasis is spent on the pattern instead of the content.
• C) The sentence is invalid because the verb 'needed' cannot appear inside a what-cleft.'Needed' works normally inside the what-cleft, as in 'What I needed was rest'.
• D) The sentence is invalid because a what-cleft must contain a question word other than 'what'.The word 'what' is itself the required opener, so no other question word is involved.