<p>Has anyone ever answered a CR question about either 'what was the attitude of whoever' or 'the tone of the passage' or anything that's not exactly straight from the passage but you had to sort of guess? Did you always get the correct answer? If not, how do you train yourself to think like whoever wrote those questions think?</p>
<p>There are some questions that I just can't for the life of me come up with the correct answer. The correct answer just seems wrong to me.</p>
<p>There are a few basic types of 'trap' answers:
Too broad - looks at 'too big' of a picture
Too narrow - focuses on one aspect of the passage, ignores the rest
Distortion - takes key themes or wording from the passage and twists it a little (this one is tricky)
Unrelated - has nothing to do with the passage</p>
<p>It helps to underline important phrases in the passage. The main idea is often revealed in the first 1/3 of the passage, or at the very end, so read extra carefully there. And continually ask yourself what the author is trying to say at different stages of the passage.. see if you can summarize the main idea before even reading the answer choices.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I agree with "thebeef."</p>
<p>Also, for the tone look for attitude words in the passage that suggest positive, negative, or neutral connotations.
Words such as "I felt a rush of nostalgia for..." suggest that the author is feeling reminiscient about a subject.
Words such as "agree with" "relate with" "advocate" suggest that the author is positive about the subject and most likely agrees with it.
Etc. You get the point.
Oh, watch out for pivotal words such as however, but, also, yet, etc. as these can change the viewpoint of the author.</p>
<p>So when answering tone questions, always look for words in the passage that display attitude of the author.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>