Grade 10 ELA: Exploring Tone and Mood
This worksheet helps 10th-grade students understand and differentiate between tone and mood in literary texts through various exercises.
Includes
Standards
Topics
Grade 10 ELA: Exploring Tone and Mood
Name:
Date:
Score:
Read each question carefully and follow the instructions. This worksheet is designed to help you understand and differentiate between tone and mood in literary texts.
Reading Passage: Excerpt from 'The Great Gatsby'
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves on the trees, and the blue ocean which was open all the way to the Sound, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer. There was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the 'creative temperament'—it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. No—Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”
1. What is the overall tone of the narrator in the opening paragraph of the excerpt? Provide specific words or phrases from the text to support your answer.
2. How does the mood shift, if at all, from the first paragraph to the last sentence of the excerpt? Explain what contributes to this change.
3. Which of the following best describes the author's tone towards Gatsby in the excerpt?
Sarcastic and critical
Admiring and reflective
Indifferent and detached
Disapproving and judgmental
4. What mood does the phrase "foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams" primarily evoke in the reader?
Hopefulness
Nostalgia
Disillusionment
Excitement
5. The author's is their attitude toward the subject, while the is the feeling the reader gets from the text.
6. Words like "gorgeous," "heightened sensitivity," and "extraordinary gift for hope" contribute to a tone in the initial description of Gatsby.
7. Tone and mood are interchangeable terms and mean the exact same thing.
True
False
8. A writer can use imagery, diction, and syntax to establish both the tone and mood of a piece.
True
False
Creative Writing Prompt:
9. Write a short paragraph (5-7 sentences) describing a rainy day. First, write it with a melancholic and somber mood. Then, rewrite the same paragraph, but change the tone to be hopeful and optimistic, while maintaining the rainy day setting.
Melancholic/Somber:
Hopeful/Optimistic: