Passages written in cynical tone reveal author’s view of society being driven purely by self-interest. How do tend to speak about people you find distrustful? Here comes the role of cynical tone. You will often find such passages treating the subject in a scornful and ridiculous way. This kind of tone exhibits author’s disdain or contempt towards the subject.
As you would expect, such RC passages may display snobbish or scornful tones with regard to things considered inferior in the author’s view. Condescending/PatronizingĪ condescending tone implies an attitude of patronizing superiority of a particular thing/person/group. The author intends to familiarize the reader with the trauma undergone by the sufferers.
This type of tone is used to express grief or show sympathy for a person or a group of people suffering from prejudiced practices or cultural norms. Once you identify the author’s stand, you will be able to figure out the answers to the required questions. Similarly, the author uses a biased tone and presents arguments in favour of a particular thing/theory in the passage. While favouring one thing/person/group over the other, we tend to use a biased tone to display our inclination towards it. RC passages based on this kind of tone are easily to understand and let you easily predict the answers to inference-based questions. Think of the feelings that Allies and Axis powers had towards each other. This is when author adopts belligerent tone of writing. In which tone do you think two warring parties talk to each other? As you would guess, they are aggressively hostile towards each other. Such passages may also include a lot of facts and figures. RC passages based on this tone generally talk of theories related to world wars, natural disasters or other such catastrophes that have impacted mankind adversely. ApologeticĪs the name states, this kind of tone is used to express remorse or guilt regarding the mishaps or tragedies that may have occurred in the past. Questions based on such passages are generally direct and easy to answer. Such RC passages revolve around biased systems or policies followed by the authorities. Similarly, the author intends to justify his anger by stating various reasons related to the issue. How do you justify your anger towards any unfair system? You may do so by some arguments, facts and examples regarding the subject. Similar to the above type, this kind of tone shows the author’s anger towards the subject in a justified way. Once you identify this tone, you will be able to answer the ‘author agree/disagree’ questions that follow the RC passage. The author reveals his disagreement with a particular theory or may express his disdain towards a person in an acerbic tone. How would you express your dislike or disapproval for something or someone in a harsh way? Here comes the role of acerbic tone. Generally, CAT RCs feature in the following types of tones: Acerbic/harsh/severe/bitter/caustic/vitrolic: On the other hand, a subjective tone reveals the attitude and emotions of the author with respect to the issue. As you would guess, the objective tone is used when the author chooses to remain neutral and detached. The same set of words change their meaning if you speak them in a different tone.īroadly, the tones used are subjective or objective.
Tone of the passage is indicative of the message that the author wants to convey to the reader. Learning to identify the tone will help you in multiple ways: answering the direct tone based questions as well as figuring out the implicit information and inferences. Similarly, RC tones vary in different contexts with same or different subjects. You may speak the same sentence in harsh or polite or sarcastic tone depending upon the context and people. You probably react differently to different people in same or different situations. In other words, it’s the predominant emotion the author displays towards the subject. The tone of the passage represents the author’s sentiment or attitude towards the subject being discussed. So, what is really meant by ‘tone of the passage’? As you would know, tone-based questions frequently accompany CAT RC passages. Close to the writing style, comes the tone of passage. Home » Blog » Tones of Passages for Reading Comprehension Questions in CAT Exam Tones of Passages for Reading Comprehension Questions in CAT Examīy now, you must be aware of the various types of RC passages as well the different writing styles.