Tone
Which of the following is an example of a negative tone word?
a) melancholy
b) indirect
c) comical
d) empathetic
a) hostile
b) cynical
c) hopeful
d) indifferent
What is style?
a) the word choice and word arrangement made by the author
b) the author’s diction
c) the genre of a piece of writing
A small-town lawyer from Illinois, tall and lanky with an Adam's apple that could have gone down in the Guinness Book of Records had it existed in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, he changed the face of American history, steering it through a civil war that left both sides bloody. Who knows what more he could have done had an assassin's bullet not cut him down.
(Use your background knowledge) Who is being described?
a) George Washington
b) Thomas Edison
c) Abraham Lincoln
d) James Madison
Which of the following is the correct definition of tone?
a) a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation
b) language generally seen in textbooks, magazines, and newspapers
c) the author’s particular attitude, either stated or implied in the writing
What is mood?
a) the author’s attitude & feelings towards a certain subject
b) the general feeling or atmosphere that a piece of writing creates within the reader
c) the main message that the author is trying to get across
b) the general feeling or atmosphere that a piece of writing creates within the reader
a) friendly letters
b) text messages
c) news reports
d) personal essays
a) she did not survive the flight
b) she was a daredevil
c) she was a terrible pilot
a) a serious tone
b) a humorous tone
c) a calm tone
d) a disrespectful tone
Literature with a peaceful mood would most likely make the reader feel _______.
a) helpless
b) energetic
c) valueable
d) relaxed
In which of the following would the style be most informal?
a) a fashion magazine article
b) a teen diary
c) an apology letter to a teacher
d) a food blog
b) a teen diary
a) he was too scared
b) he didn’t want anyone to get hurt
c) he wasn’t good at fighting
“When are you going to take out the trash? Sometime this year maybe?”
a) straightforward
b) sarcastic
c) calm
d) bemused
a) confusion
b) disappointment
c) suspense
d) barren
a) it ran in her family
b) she would never be able to learn how to communicate with her parents because of her illness
c) it was going to be hard for her to communicate with others
Read the following excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank.
“I was stunned. A call-up: everyone knows what that means. Visions of concentration camps and lonely cells races through my head.”
What is the tone of the excerpt?
a) angry
b) fearful
c) confused
Which of the following is the best example of informal language & tone?
a) “The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow; nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.”
b) “Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today; it’s already tomorrow in Australia.”
c) “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another.”
b) “Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today; it’s already tomorrow in Australia.”
In the early nineteenth century, Shakespeare was the most widely performed playwright in both the North and Southeast. In the first half of the nineteenth century, English and American actors could always earn money by performing Shakespeare in towns both big and small. By the end of the nineteenth century, theater owners claimed that most ordinary people couldn't understand Shakespeare, and they were refusing to stage his plays. In the early 1800s, theater goers in big cities could often choose between three different productions of Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet; by the end of the nineteenth century, it was hard to find one production of a Shakespeare play, let alone several.
Which is the most logical inference?
a) early American audiences embraced Shakespeare's plays enthusiastically because they wanted to prove that they were as clever and sophisticated as their former British rulers
b) the role of Shakespeare in America changed dramatically as the nineteenth century drew to a close
b) the role of Shakespeare in America changed dramatically as the nineteenth century drew to a close