Compare Passages for Tone

Select the passage that has a more judgmental tone.

• The maggot's cuticle, or skin, is white and smooth to the unaided eye. Using a microscope, however, one can observe rows of tiny spines, which assist the

  maggot's movements through its food-mass.

  
  

• Seen under a microscope, the appearance of the louse strikes us with disgust. These loathsome animals, however unwelcome, come in troops, adding to the afflictions of the unfortunate.

  
  

Select the passage that has a more joyous tone.

• It was a time when chance meetings led to long friendships. On the border, a stranger spoke to another stranger if he or she felt like it. They could ask questions If they chose. Partnerships were formed on the spur of the moment, and formality was a commodity little in demand.

• It was a rapturous companionship. We enjoyed the vast delight more so because, even in our most ecstatic moments, we were conscious of each other's presence.

Select the passage that has a more agitated tone.

• I told the doctor that I had a peculiar feeling in my chest. In five minutes he was pounding my midriff in. And the questions that man asked! He began with my grandparents, roamed through my childhood and youth, dissected my teenage years, and finally came down to coffee and what I ate for breakfast.

• The doctor was sitting in an easy chair and swinging his hat, which he held in both hands, and he was thinking. Except for him, there was not a soul in the room. The sun had set, and the shades of evening began settling in the corners under the furniture.

Select the passage that has a more affectionate tone.

• The man's face, lighted by the lamp, was radiant. Even the large nose was made more beautiful by the love that shone in his small gray eyes. He took one of her hands In both of his own and held it close a moment, while they regarded one another silently.

• He was a small, alert, dark-eyed man about thirty years of age, very sturdily built, with thick black eyebrows and a strong, pugnacious face. He wore a ruddy-tinted tweed suit and had the weather-beaten appearance of one who has spent most of his time in the open air.

Select the passage that has a more critical tone.

• The solitary house stood in a sadly neglected garden. It was uninhabited, but had, within the last year or two, been cheaply repaired to render it habitable.

• The little house seemed almost like a tent pitched against the sunshine. It had the crispness of a freshly starched summer gown, and the geraniums on the veranda bloomed like flowers in a bonnet.

Select the passage that has a more humorous tone.

• While the bride's father, in tight pants and tighter gloves, fidgets and fumes in the vestibule, six ushers crowd about him inanely and the church sexton rushes from place to place like a rat in a trap.

• Traditionally, the father of the bride escorted his daughter to church and presented her to her husband. It was also customary for the bride's father to pay all the expenses of music or decoration in the church.

Select the passage that has a more enthusiastic tone.

• Tom and Bud were bursting with curiosity. Although the Swifts had been in radio contact with creatures from outer space for many months, this was the most exciting news yet!

• It was quite by accident that I discovered an invasion of Earth by life-forms from another planet. As yet, I haven't done anything about it; I can't think of anything to do. I wrote to the Government, and they sent back a pamphlet on the repair and maintenance of frame houses.

Select the passage that has a more personal tone.

• In the morning, a huge tiger snake was discovered underneath our tent. Its strong odor must have alerted our lizard to its presence, because the snake was killed at once. Afterward, our appreciation for our little friend with half a tall grew, because we recognized that he was a protector as well as friend.

• The salamanders captured prey by pursuit. They were attracted by movements of flies; predation was oriented almost wholly on a visual basis. Once they were within an inch of a fly, they would snap out their tongue to secure the fly. They were successful in capturing flies about seventy-five percent of the time.

Select the passage that has a more disgusted tone.

• It is more difficult to paint well with certain colors, in particular the finer and lighter yellows. These paints don't have a strong, full color quality, and do not mix well.

• The color is repellent, almost revolting: a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulfur tint in others.

Select the passage that has a more lighthearted tone.

• The sun had disappeared and a lead-colored twilight settled down. A few drops of rain, driving horizontally, struck him. The impact was like that of leaden pellets.

• Over in the West, jolly, round, red Mr. Sun started to go to bed behind the purple hills, and the shadows came creeping out.