The author's attitude — Aptitude Question
The author's attitude: For most of the twentieth century, sleep was treated as an absence: the hours in which… Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Reading Comprehension
- Section: Verbal Ability
- Difficulty: Medium
- Time target: 75 seconds
Question
For most of the twentieth century, sleep was treated as an absence: the hours in which nothing happened. That view has been overturned. The sleeping brain consolidates the day's learning, clears metabolic waste and rehearses motor sequences. What looks like inactivity is in fact a second shift. The practical consequence is uncomfortable for a culture that prizes long hours — cutting sleep to gain working time is a trade that reliably loses more than it gains.
The author's attitude towards a culture that prizes long hours is best described as:
Options
- Approving
- Critical
- Indifferent
- Bewildered
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: B. Critical
Worked solution
- Calling the finding 'uncomfortable' for that culture, and the trade a reliable loss, signals disapproval.
- The tone is measured rather than hostile, so critical fits best.
Answer: Critical.
The idea
Tone lives in word choice. Pick the mildest label that still accounts for every loaded word in the passage.
Shortcut. 'Uncomfortable' and 'reliably loses more than it gains' are negative judgments, which removes Approving and Indifferent; nothing in the passage is confused, so Bewildered goes too.
Common trap. "Indifferent" — the passage is calm and evidence-based, so its measured tone can pass for no attitude at all, but calling the trade a reliable loss is a clear judgment.