Lesson 27 of 35 · Reading Comprehension
Detail, tone and style questions
Answer "according to the passage" questions by going back to the line, and read an author's tone from the words that judge.
About 20 minutes
In this lesson
- Locate the sentence a detail question depends on and match it to a faithful paraphrase.
- Reject choices that are true in the world, true elsewhere in the passage, or distorted.
- Identify an author's tone from evaluative language and choose a description of matching strength.
The idea
Detail questions: the answer is in a sentence
Detail questions ask what the passage says: "According to the passage...", "The passage states that...", "Which of the following is mentioned as...?" They are the most direct questions on a passage, and the most often missed, because readers answer them from memory.
Never answer a detail question from memory. Use your map to find the paragraph, find the sentence, and read it again. Then look for the choice that says the same thing in different words.
Paraphrase, not copy
The right answer rarely repeats the passage's words. It paraphrases them: "estimate how much of a pattern reflects observers' habits and correct for it" may appear as "allow analysts to adjust for the influence of observers' behaviour". Meanwhile, wrong answers often do reuse the passage's words, attached to the wrong idea.
So match meaning, not vocabulary. If a choice contains a striking phrase from the passage, check that it uses the phrase for the same claim.
Four ways a detail choice goes wrong
| Problem | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Distortion | Right topic, changed claim: "many" becomes "most", "cover more ground" becomes "more accurate". |
| Wrong place | Something the passage says, but about a different thing or answering a different question. |
| Not stated | Plausible, even true in the world, but nowhere in the passage. |
| Reversed | The passage's claim turned around, often with a negation added or removed. |
"Not stated" is the subtlest. Outside knowledge does not count, however accurate. If you cannot point to the sentence, the choice is wrong.
Detail purpose versus detail content
Some questions ask what a detail is ("The passage mentions which of the following as a concern?") and others why it is there ("The author mentions X in order to..."). The first is a detail question: go to the line. The second is a function question: go to the claim the line supports. Read the stem carefully to know which you have.
Tone and attitude
Tone questions ask how the author regards something: "The author's attitude toward X is best described as..." The evidence is the author's evaluative words: sound, misleading, imperfect, a mistake, deserves scrutiny. Collect them, then decide two things:
- Direction: positive, negative, or mixed.
- Strength: mild, moderate or strong.
Authors of passages like the ones in this course are usually measured, so the right tone is often mixed or moderate: qualified approval, cautious optimism, measured scepticism. Extreme tones (outrage, uncritical enthusiasm, contempt) are possible but need extreme language in the passage to support them.
A passage that reports both sides and then judges is not neutral. A passage that praises something while naming its limits is not enthusiastic. Match both direction and strength.
Style questions
Style questions ask about how the passage is written: the kind of evidence it uses (examples, comparisons, data), how it handles opposing views (concedes, rejects, reframes) or the register of its language. Answer them from the map and the evaluative words, as for tone. A passage built on hypothetical illustrations does not "rely on statistical evidence", even if it mentions a quantity once.
"Except" and "not" questions
Some detail questions are reversed: "Each of the following is mentioned in the passage EXCEPT..." Here four choices are stated and one is not. The method is the same, applied four times: find each choice's sentence, and the one you cannot find is the answer. Read the stem twice before you start, because answering the ordinary version of a reversed question is one of the easiest ways to lose a mark you had earned. A quick note of "EXCEPT" in your scratch work helps.
Worked examples
Example 1: Going back to the line
Few decisions in art conservation provoke as much argument as the cleaning of old paintings. Over centuries, the varnish that protects a painting yellows and darkens, and grime collects on its surface. Removing these layers can reveal colours that no living viewer has seen. It can also remove, critics warn, thin glazes that the artist applied on top of the paint to soften or unify the picture, glazes that may be hard to tell apart from later varnish.
Conservators have answered this concern with more cautious methods: cleaning small test areas first, analysing samples before proceeding, and leaving a thin layer of old varnish where the evidence is unclear. These methods have made serious mistakes rarer. They have not settled the argument, because the argument is partly about taste. A viewer accustomed to the warm, golden tone of an uncleaned picture may find its cleaned colours harsh, even if they are exactly what the painter intended.
It would be a mistake to dismiss such reactions as mere nostalgia. Yet it would be equally mistaken to let them decide the matter. What viewers have grown used to is a fact about viewers, not about paintings.
According to the passage, why have cautious cleaning methods not settled the argument about cleaning old paintings?
Map: (1) cleaning reveals colours but may remove the artist's glazes; (2) cautious methods made mistakes rarer, but taste keeps the argument alive; (3) author: viewers' reactions matter but should not decide.
The question is in paragraph 2. The sentence: "They have not settled the argument, because the argument is partly about taste."
Read the next sentence for what "taste" means here: viewers used to the golden tone of an uncleaned picture may find cleaned colours harsh, even if they are what the painter intended.
Answer
Because part of the disagreement concerns taste: viewers accustomed to the darkened appearance may dislike the cleaned colours even when those colours are accurate. A tempting distortion is "because the methods still often remove the artist's glazes"; the passage says the methods made mistakes rarer, not that they still fail often.
Example 2: Reading the author's attitude
Using the cleaning passage in the first example: which best describes the author's attitude toward viewers who prefer uncleaned paintings? (1) contempt; (2) sympathetic but unpersuaded; (3) wholehearted agreement.
Collect the evaluative words in paragraph 3: "a mistake to dismiss such reactions as mere nostalgia" (sympathy) and "equally mistaken to let them decide the matter" (disagreement).
Direction: mixed. Strength: moderate; the language is calm and balanced ("it would be a mistake", "equally mistaken").
Match: contempt is too negative and contradicts "a mistake to dismiss"; wholehearted agreement contradicts "equally mistaken to let them decide".
Answer
Sympathetic but unpersuaded. The author takes the reactions seriously but holds that they should not decide what is done to a painting.
Common traps
Answering from memory
Detail questions punish the reader who is sure what the passage said. One changed word, "most" for "many", is enough to make a choice wrong. Go back to the sentence every time; it takes seconds with a map.
The borrowed phrase
A choice that repeats a vivid phrase from the passage feels right. Check that the phrase is attached to the same claim; wrong answers often reuse the passage's words for a different idea.
True, but not in the passage
A choice that is accurate in the world but not stated in the passage is wrong for "according to the passage" questions. If you cannot point to the sentence, reject it.
Extreme tone for a measured author
An author who calls objections "sound" and the result "imperfect" but useful is not enthusiastic and not hostile. Match strength as well as direction; most authors on these passages are measured.
Check yourself
Answer each question before you open its answer.
Question 1: According to the passage
Reading Comprehension
Amateur birdwatchers have long recorded what they see, but only recently have their records been collected on a large scale. Online platforms now gather enormous numbers of sightings, and researchers have begun to use them to track where species live and when they migrate.
Professional ecologists were at first wary. Amateur observers, they pointed out, tend to visit places that are easy to reach and pleasant to walk in, and they report rare birds more eagerly than common ones. A map built from such reports might show where birdwatchers go rather than where birds are.
These objections were sound, and they have not disappeared. But they have turned out to be problems of method rather than reasons for dismissal. Researchers now ask observers to record every species they see, not only the notable ones, and to note how long they looked and where they walked. With this information, analysts can estimate how much of a pattern reflects observers' habits and correct for it. The resulting maps are imperfect, but for many common species they cover more ground, more often, than any professional survey could afford to.
According to the passage, researchers now ask observers to note how long they looked and where they walked in order to
- A.increase the number of rare species recorded
- B.allow analysts to estimate and correct for the effect of observers' habits on the patterns in the data
- C.replace professional surveys of bird populations entirely
- D.identify which observers are the most skilled
- E.discourage observers from visiting places that are easy to reach
Show the answer
Answer: B. allow analysts to estimate and correct for the effect of observers' habits on the patterns in the data
Working
The third paragraph says researchers ask observers to record every species, how long they looked and where they walked, and that "with this information, analysts can estimate how much of a pattern reflects observers' habits and correct for it." That is the stated purpose. The other choices add aims the passage never gives or overstate what it says.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. The passage's concern is the opposite: observers already over-report rare birds, and the new requests aim to correct distortions, not add rare records.
- C. The passage says the maps cover more ground than surveys could afford to for many common species; it never says they replace surveys.
- D. Observer skill is never mentioned; the information is used to adjust patterns, not to rank people.
- E. The passage names easy-to-reach places as a source of bias but says the response is to record effort and correct for it, not to change where observers go.
What carries over
Answer detail questions from the sentence itself, then pick the faithful paraphrase.
Question 2: The author's attitude
Reading Comprehension
Amateur birdwatchers have long recorded what they see, but only recently have their records been collected on a large scale. Online platforms now gather enormous numbers of sightings, and researchers have begun to use them to track where species live and when they migrate.
Professional ecologists were at first wary. Amateur observers, they pointed out, tend to visit places that are easy to reach and pleasant to walk in, and they report rare birds more eagerly than common ones. A map built from such reports might show where birdwatchers go rather than where birds are.
These objections were sound, and they have not disappeared. But they have turned out to be problems of method rather than reasons for dismissal. Researchers now ask observers to record every species they see, not only the notable ones, and to note how long they looked and where they walked. With this information, analysts can estimate how much of a pattern reflects observers' habits and correct for it. The resulting maps are imperfect, but for many common species they cover more ground, more often, than any professional survey could afford to.
The author's attitude toward the use of amateur birdwatching records in research is best described as
- A.uncritical enthusiasm
- B.detached neutrality
- C.growing scepticism
- D.reluctant rejection
- E.qualified approval
Show the answer
Answer: E. qualified approval
Working
The evaluative words point both ways: the objections are "sound" and the maps "imperfect" (limits acknowledged), but the objections are "problems of method rather than reasons for dismissal" and the maps cover more ground than surveys could afford (approval). Positive direction, moderate strength: qualified approval.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. The author calls the objections "sound" and the maps "imperfect"; that is not uncritical.
- B. The author takes a position: the objections are "problems of method rather than reasons for dismissal".
- C. The passage moves the other way, from early wariness to the view that the problems can be corrected.
- D. The author does not reject the records; the closing sentence values their coverage.
What carries over
Judge tone by direction and strength together, from the author's own evaluative words.
Question 3: Which is stated?
Reading Comprehension
Amateur birdwatchers have long recorded what they see, but only recently have their records been collected on a large scale. Online platforms now gather enormous numbers of sightings, and researchers have begun to use them to track where species live and when they migrate.
Professional ecologists were at first wary. Amateur observers, they pointed out, tend to visit places that are easy to reach and pleasant to walk in, and they report rare birds more eagerly than common ones. A map built from such reports might show where birdwatchers go rather than where birds are.
These objections were sound, and they have not disappeared. But they have turned out to be problems of method rather than reasons for dismissal. Researchers now ask observers to record every species they see, not only the notable ones, and to note how long they looked and where they walked. With this information, analysts can estimate how much of a pattern reflects observers' habits and correct for it. The resulting maps are imperfect, but for many common species they cover more ground, more often, than any professional survey could afford to.
Which of the following is stated in the passage?
- A.Professional ecologists now rely mainly on amateur records.
- B.For rare species, maps built from amateur records are more accurate than professional surveys.
- C.Ecologists' early objections were based on where amateurs choose to look and which birds they choose to report.
- D.The ecologists' early objections were mistaken.
- E.Online platforms for sightings were designed by professional ecologists.
Show the answer
Answer: C. Ecologists' early objections were based on where amateurs choose to look and which birds they choose to report.
Working
The second paragraph gives the objections: observers visit places that are easy to reach and pleasant to walk in, and report rare birds more eagerly than common ones. That is where they look and which birds they report. The other choices overstate the passage, swap common species and coverage for rare species and accuracy, reverse its verdict or add a fact it does not give.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. The passage says researchers have begun to use the records, not that ecologists rely mainly on them.
- B. The passage speaks of common species, and of coverage ("more ground, more often"), not of accuracy.
- D. This reverses the author's verdict: the objections "were sound, and they have not disappeared".
- E. The passage never says who designed the platforms.
What carries over
A "stated" choice must be traceable to a sentence; distortions change one word or one scope.
Key points
Answer detail questions from the sentence, never from memory.
The right answer paraphrases; wrong answers often reuse the passage's words for a different claim.
Outside knowledge does not make a choice stated.
Tone has a direction and a strength; measured authors call for measured descriptions.
All questions here are original and written for UniExamer; none comes from the test maker.
Written by the UniExamer team with AI assistance. Every worked example and check question was re-solved by an independent checker before publication. No subject expert has reviewed this lesson yet. If you find a mistake, write to support@uniexamer.com.