Explain how you felt when you got this toy?
This could be a question in an English oral test.
Is it asking how I felt in the first few days after I got the toy or in the period of time when I had the toy?
Thank you!
It is asking how receiving the toy made you feel.
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2Please edit to include an explanation of why this is correct; answers without explanation do not teach the patterns of the language well. – Nathan Tuggy Apr 1 '16 at 4:01
I believe the question is asking for your "first reaction" at the moment you took possession of the toy (the use of "got" here could mean either a gift or a purchase). So yes, it could be referring to the first few days, or even the first few minutes. The fact that it is asking for "how you felt" is why I think it's asking for your initial reaction.
When means at the time at which, so the question is asking how you felt at the moment you received the toy. You could get the same meaning using on:
Explain how you felt on getting this toy
If you wanted to ask about somebody's feelings in the period after the event, you would change the conjunction to after.
Explain how you felt after you got this toy
If you wanted to restrict the time, you could say immediately after or in the days after.
If you were interested in long-term or permanent changes in feelings, you would use since or ever since.
Note that explain is not a question-word: it's an instruction, so the sentence does not need a question mark.
