Tone Analysis in Literary Passages

Select the passage that has a more complimentary tone.

• When everything was ready, he invited some thirty people to listen to a trial performance. It was wretched. All the depth of tone had gone from his violin as well as the skill from his fingers...The project was abandoned.

• He plays difficult music, but he makes it appear uncomplicated. This is real talent. He has a very fine round tone, and everything distinct and well accentuated. In short, he is a very solid violin player.

Select the passage that has a more excited tone.

• "They are coming! They are coming!" cried Hannah, throwing open the parlor door. At the same moment old Carlo barked joyfully. Out I ran, and in a minute I had my face in contact with Mary's soft cheek, then with Diana's flowing curls. They laughed-kissed me back-then Hannah patted Carlo, who was half wild with delight.

• He walked to the window and I to the door, to see the two Lintons descend from the family carriage, smothered in cloaks and furs, and the Earnshaws dismount from their horses. Catherine gently took a hand of each of the children and brought them into the house.

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Select the passage that has a more cheerful tone.

• Then the yellow hue of the sunrise came. The last of the bright stars were put out by the flood of light, and multitudes of little birds began to chirp their morning song.

• Everything was very still now. The dusk advanced on him steadily, rapidly, gathering behind and ahead of him. The light seemed to be draining away like flood water.

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Select the passage that has a more factual tone.

• Mount Diablo commands a more extensive, varied, and beautiful prospect than any equal elevation in the world! From the summit at sunrise one will enjoy an ample reward for early rising.

• The mainstay of Andorra's economy is tourism. An estimated nine million tourists visit annually, attracted by Andorra's duty-free status and by its summer and winter resorts.

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Select the passage that has a more agitated tone.

• The singing teakettle, as it boiled on the stovetop, sounded like a cicada pouring forth its woes to departing summer. Each of the tea drinkers silently drained his cup, the host last of all, according to established etiquette.

• The teakettle was enormous, capable of deluging the house in its incessant showers of steam; it was the enraged representative of all the household chores Katherine had neglected.

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Select the passage that has a more affectionate tone.

• I felt a sympathy and a sorrow for him, but I don't know what for. And yet I also felt a strange awe of him; but that sort of awe was not exactly awe. But I felt it; and it did not disincline me towards him; thought I felt impatience at what seemed like mystery in him.

• I grew very fond of him, he was so gentle and kind; he seemed to know just how a horse feels, and when he cleaned me, he knew the tender and the ticklish places; when he brushed my head, he went as carefully over my eyes as if they were his own.

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.7

CCSS.RI.8.7

CCSS.RL.6.9

CCSS.RL.8.5

CCSS.RL.8.7

Select the passage that has a more dreading tone.

• There was a strange smell in the school room, like mildewed clothing, sweet apples beginning to rot, and old books. The roof was full of holes, and the skies had rained, snowed, hailed, and blown ink on the students through the varying seasons of the year.

• New we have had a week of fog and rain, and whether the windows are open or not, the smell is here. It creeps all over the house. I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stair.

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Select the passage that has a more scornful tone.

• The others were yelling with laughter. Have you ever noticed how very amused people always are when you're not there? If you are in bed-ill, or in disgrace, or anything-it always sound like far finer jokes than ever occur when you are there.

• I think I never heard so many old played-out jokes strung together in my life. He was worse than a jester, worse than the clown in the circus. It seemed peculiarly sad to sit here and listen again to poor, flat, worm-eaten jokes that had been terrible when I was a boy.

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Select the sentence that has a more awestruck tone.

• A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest town on earth.

• A change in the color of the light usually called me in the morning. It flashed suddenly into my eyes as dazzling blue, so dark and splendid that I used to marvel how the qualities could be combined. The sky glowed with sunlight in a wonderful mix of gold and rose and green.

Tags

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Select the passage that has a more desperate tone.

• For twenty-six heart-crushing hours, Freddy and Dawson had been floating in the raft. Twelve of them had been spent in the darkness, hoping, hoping, hoping that at down they would see one of their own planes. Just to see something besides sky, water, and darkness would have been something, even if it hadn't meant rescue.

• The wind, following my escape from the pirates, blew a steady but moderate gale, and the sea, though agitated, was not rough or dangerous. Sitting in my cabin I would hardly realize that I was at sea at all, so easy was the long, swinging motion of the boat over the waves.