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15.04 · Reading Comprehension
Tone of the Author
Elite lesson9 rules10 questions
On the syllabus of
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Rules
At a glance 9 rules
- 1Three cutsFact or opinion first, then positive or negative, then how strong. Cut the options that fail each step before you choose.
- 2The author's own wordsTone comes from the author's own adjectives, adverbs and verbs, not from the views they report ('critics call it...', 'the story went...').
- 3Topic is not toneA passage on earthquakes or disease can be purely objective. With no loaded words, choose objective, explanatory or informative.
- 4Weight after the turnIn 'yes, but' writing the verdict follows but, yet, still or however. Several lines of praise can still lead to a critical verdict.
- 5Attitude to whatCheck the target the question names: an author can mock an idea yet admire the people or the methods behind it.
- 6Both halves must fitIn options like 'curious but cautious' or 'sceptical, while accepting...', test each half against the passage; one wrong half kills it.
- 7Measured beats extremeExam authors are rarely furious or ecstatic. Pick the mildest option the words support: cautious, sceptical, appreciative, not scathing.
- 8Irony flips praisePraise for something plainly silly, costly or broken is sarcasm: 'a triumph of planning' for a road dug up twice in a month. Read the facts under the compliment.
- 9Know the tone wordsAmbivalent: pulled both ways, not uncaring. Indifferent: does not care. Wry: dryly amused. Nostalgic: fond of the past. Indignant: angry at unfairness.
Test yourself
Tap an option to answer. The first tap counts.
- Q1Easy
Few machines in an Indian kitchen work as hard as the pressure cooker, and fewer get so little thanks. By trapping steam, it pushes the boiling point of water well above 100°C, so dal that would simmer for an hour in an open pot is soft in a fraction of the time, with a matching saving in gas. The design is beautifully simple: a heavy lid, a rubber ring and a weighted valve that whistles when the pressure is right. Generations of cooks have trusted it, and rightly so. It is a small, sturdy marvel of everyday physics.
The author's attitude towards the pressure cooker is best described as
Correct answeradmiring
Why
Tone: gather the author's own describing words.
'Beautifully simple', 'rightly so' and 'a small, sturdy marvel' are all praise, and nothing in the passage mocks or complains.
So the attitude is admiring.
- Q2Easy
Before phones fitted in a pocket, news from home arrived by post. Every month my grandmother wrote to me on a pale blue inland letter, filling every corner and then turning the sheet sideways to squeeze in one last line. I would read each letter three or four times, hearing her voice in the loops of her handwriting. Today a message reaches me in a second, often with a photograph attached. Yet I sometimes miss those weeks of waiting for the postman, and the small thrill of a blue letter with my name on it in her careful hand.
The tone of the passage is best described as
Correct answernostalgic
Why
Find the line where the author speaks about their own feelings.
'I sometimes miss those weeks of waiting' and 'the small thrill of a blue letter' look back fondly, with no anger or mockery aimed at today's messages.
So the tone is nostalgic.
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