The tone of the library passage — Aptitude Question
The tone of the library passage: The public library is a strange institution by the standards of modern economics. Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Reading Comprehension
- Section: Verbal Ability
- Difficulty: Medium
- Time target: 75 seconds
Question
The public library is a strange institution by the standards of modern economics. It gives away, free of charge, a service that people would pay for. It admits everyone regardless of what they can spend. And it survives, in most countries, on a budget that would embarrass a mid-sized company. Its defenders no longer argue chiefly about books; they argue about the library as one of the few remaining places a person may sit for an afternoon without being asked to buy anything.
The tone of the passage is best described as:
Options
- Dismissive
- Sympathetic
- Hostile
- Neutral and statistical
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: B. Sympathetic
Worked solution
- The passage highlights the library's generosity, its openness and its small budget.
- The closing sentence treats its role as valuable, so the tone is sympathetic.
- It is not neutral — the language is warm and selective.
Answer: Sympathetic.
The idea
Ask whether the author's word choices lean for or against the subject. 'Strange by the standards of economics' is admiring here, not critical.
Shortcut. Every detail chosen — a free service, open to all, a tiny budget, one of the few places to sit without buying — shows the library in a good light, and Sympathetic is the only positive option.
Common trap. "Neutral and statistical" — the passage uses economic terms and makes no open appeal, so it can look detached, but it contains no statistics and its choice of details is warm.