GMAS 5th Grade English Language Arts (ELA) Practice Test

Tone is the attitude toward the subject or toward the audience, shown through how the author speaks about the topic. It’s the mood the writer wants you to feel—friendly, serious, funny, sarcastic, hopeful, or skeptical—often carried by word choice, sentence length, and how the ideas are arranged. Imagery is about the vivid pictures created with sensory detail. Details are the specific facts or items the author mentions. Setting is where and when the story takes place. So when the question asks for the term that denotes attitude, tone is the best fit because it specifically names how the writer feels about the subject and how that feeling comes across to readers. For example, a line can use cheerful wording and upbeat rhythm to convey a happy tone, or sharp, clipped phrases to show a tense tone, even if the same facts are present.