Tone

“I shall throw you on a black ship and send you to the mainland, To King Echetos, destroyer of all mortal men, Who will cut off your nostrils with a sharp bronze sword; He will tear of your private parts and give them to the dogs to eat raw.” --

Homer, The Odyssey

Which word best describes the tone of the passage?

• Threatening

• Amused

• Proud

• Direct

Read the passage and answer the question:
“There were always children there, and I spent all my time with the children, only with the children. They were the children of the village where I lived, a whole gang of them who went to the local school. I was simply with them mostly, and I spent all my four years like that. I did not want anything else.”   --Dostoyevsky, The Idiot 
Which word best describes the tone?

• Concerned
• Reflective
• Reverent
• Remorseful

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Read the passage and answer the question:
“They showered me this morning at the courthouse and last night at the jail. And I swear I believe they'd of washed my ears for me on the taxi over if they coulda found the facilities. Hoo boy, seems like every time they ship me someplace I gotta get scrubbed down before, after, and during the operation--and get back away from me with that thermometer, Sam.”   --Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest  
Which word best describes the tone?

• Disappointed
• Condescending
• Curious
• Annoyed

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Read the passage and answer the question
“Afterwards we will be as one animal of the forest and be so close that neither one can tell that one of us is one and not the other. Can you not feel my heart be your heart?”   --Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls 
Which word best describes the tone?

• Somber
• Intimate
• Urgent
• Factual

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Read the passage and answer the question:
“But I felt after the novelty had worn off the Americans didn't really understand our music or our culture. Coming from a country where having central heating was considered posh and a refrigerator a luxury, Americans seemed to me to be strangely spoiled and 'old-fashioned.' They seemed to be lost in the forties and fifties. I expected to find Americans more forward and progressive but I was surprised to find many very set in their ways, just like their English counterparts.”   --Davies, Kink 
Which word best describes the tone?

• Hopeless
• Disappointed
• Mocking
• Thoughtful

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Read the passage and answer the question:
"My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is a weathered shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon [peaceful] sea; My heart is gladder than all these Because my love is come to me."   -Rossetti, "A Birthday" 
Which word best describes the tone?

• Sorrow
• Happiness
• Excitement
• Nervousness

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Read the passage and answer the question:
"The house itself was far from the sprawling white mansion I remembered from my childhood.  It looked smaller.  The roof sagged and the plaster was cracked.  The windows to the living room, the foyer and the upstairs guest bathroom were broken, patched haphazardly with sheets of clear plastic or wooden boards nailed across the frames.  Like so much else in Kabul, my father's house was the picture of fallen splendor."   -Hosseini, The Kite Runner 
Which word best describes the tone?

• Sentimental
• Regretful
• Terrified
• Excited

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Read the passage and answer the question:
"The neighbors' heads turned the afternoon the bus sputtered up the street and farted its way across our lot. . . .  Baba killed the engine and let the bus roll silently into our designated spot.  We sank in our seats, laughed until tears rolled down our cheeks, and, more important, until we were sure the neighbors weren't watching anymore. The bus was a sad carcass of rusted metal, shattered windows replaced with black garbage bags, balding ties, and upholstery shredded down to the springs."     -Hosseini, The Kite Runner 
What literary device used in this passage creates a giddy or silly tone?

• The example of personification in lines 1-2: “the bus . . . farted its way across our lot.”
• The metaphor in lines 5-6: “The bus was a sad carcass . . ."
• The image in line 7: “upholstery shredded down to the springs.”
• The idiom in line 2: “Baba Killed the engine. . .”

Tags

CCSS.L.9-10.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.4