ACT Preparation / Unit 17 ACT 1610 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Identifying Tone
The idea
A tone question is answered in three steps. First, collect the passage's loaded words, the ones that carry feeling or judgment rather than neutral fact. Second, sort them: are they warm or cold, approving or critical, serious or playful? Third, choose the tone word that fits the whole collection, and check that it is neither stronger nor weaker than the evidence.
In practice
Worked example: an invented review calls a new library "a quiet triumph," praises its "generous windows," and regrets only that "the café closes too early." The loaded words are triumph, generous and regrets only: mostly approving, with a mild reservation. Among enthusiastic, hostile, admiring with a minor complaint, and indifferent, the third fits. Enthusiastic overstates; hostile and indifferent contradict the words.
Where people slip
Tone choices often differ by degree. Match the strength as well as the direction: approving is not the same as ecstatic.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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