Copyright 2004 © Laraine Flemming.
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Directions: After reading each passage, circle the appropriate letter to identify the authors tone.
1. If Nat King Cole is remembered today, it is probably as the father of the talented singer Natalie Cole. A contemporary of Frank Sinatra, Cole died in 1964 at the age of 44. In the era of rock and roll, he seemed, if anything, the relic of a bygone age. But had Cole lived, he would have, easily could have, adapted. As the song with which he ended his television shows in the 1960s so clearly illustrates—"Mr. Cole Won't Rock and Roll"—Nat King Cole could imitate rock so well, he might have been a rock musician. Talented and inventive, he left his mark on a wide range of performers from Ray Charles to Marvin Gaye.
Dedicated to his music, Cole claimed to be unpolitical, even in the highly politicized late '50s and early '60s. By making that claim, he aroused the anger of many black activists. Still, he broke the color bar for entertainers in Las Vegas and became the first African American to host his own variety show on television. When sponsors shied away from the program fearful, as they said, of offending Southern audiences, Cole was bluntly critical, "Madison Avenue is in the North, and that's where the resistance is. The South is used as a football to take the stain off of us in the North." Nat King Cole may have been a musician first, but he was also a man who knew how to fight when it counted. (The quotation is from Margo Jefferson, "Unforgettable," The New York Times Book Review, December 26, 1999, p.5)
Tone:
a. Admiring
b. Unsure
c. Emotionally neutral
2. Before Charles Darwin published his most famous work, On The Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, most people believed, without question, in some version of biblical creation. But after the book's publication in 1859, questions began to multiply in the minds of many. While voyaging on the H.M.S. Beagle, Darwin noted that the same species, when located on different islands, had developed differently. In other words, genetic differences among insects and animals had been encouraged or discouraged depending on their environment. For example, a finch living on a rocky island might develop a large and very pointed beak useful for cracking seeds on rock, whereas a finch living on a lush tropical island might have a smaller and narrower one more appropriate to gathering seeds from fruits and flowers. In Darwin's mind, the difference in beaks was a result of what he called natural selection. According to his biography, Darwin was haunted by his discovery because it suggested that humans might have been shaped more by nature than by God. But that didn't stop him from publishing his theories. As Darwin expected, the publication of Origin caused an uproar. In fact, the controversy over Darwinian theory survives to this very day.
Tone:
a. Critical
b. Ironic
c. Emotionally neutral
3. Every few years comets pass close enough to the earth to be seen with the naked eye. Like frozen fireworks, they glow against the night sky, periodic visitors from the dark recesses of our solar system. Comets have been seen for thousands of years, but what they were and what they came from remained a mystery until recent times. In the 1950s, a Dutch astronomer, Jan Oort, worked out that the comets that visit the inner Solar System are just the merest fraction of a gigantic sprawling reservoir of icy fragments, which stretches outwards to a distance 1000 times greater than the orbit of Neptune. They are so distant and so small as to be invisible to our most powerful telescopes, and it is estimated that there are thousands of billions of these comets, most of which were thrown out of the forming Solar System by Jupiter and Saturn. (Passage from David McNab and James Younger, The Planets. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999, p. 117)
Tone:
a. Awed
b. Ironic
c. Emotionally Neutral
4. Although its origins dated back to the 1920s, the first Iditarod, or 1,100-mile sled race, took place in Anchorage, Alaska on March of 1973. It was a Saturday, and for most people, it was a good time to stay home and keep warm. Temperatures were sinking, predicted to reach 65 degrees below zero. If the temperatures were chilling, the wind was worse. It howled along at 100 miles per hour. Yet the horrific weather didn't seem to faze the thirty-five participants and their yelping dog teams. Even more amazing, few seemed to care that, as one entrant put it, "Nobody figured anybody could make it."
A little over three weeks after the race started in Anchorage, Dick Walmarth and his team of huskies slogged over the finish line in Nome. 22 of the original 35 teams also finished the race, with John Scultz proudly taking last place. In some races, taking last place may not seem a point of pride, but the Iditarod is different. It requires a level of courage and stamina few possess. Winning it is a spectacular achievement but so too is just staying in the race.
Tone:
a. Ironic
b. Awed
c. Emotionally neutral
5. In 1918, a mass murderer stalked the globe killing indiscriminately. Schools and warehouses were turned into morgues piled high with corpses while theaters and movie houses were emptied of patrons. The mass murderer at large was a deadly flu virus that killed without respect for age, creed, or color. In America alone, over half a million people died as a result of the flu. Then suddenly without warning, the murderous flu disappeared as quickly as it had come.
Over the years, scientists have been able to study the structure of that lethal virus, but they still don't know where it came from, why it was so deadly, and—most frightening of all—whether or not it will ever return. If it does, there is no guarantee that the world will fare any better than it did in 1918, when coffins were so scarce many of the dead had to be buried in mass graves
Tone:
a. Ironic
b. Anxious
c. Emotionally neutral
Last change made to this page: November 15, 2004