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ACT Reading—Additional Tips
The sections below provide additional information on determining the tone of passages, the types of characterization
used in Narrative/Prose Fiction passages, and understanding experiments in Science passages.
Determining the Tone of Passages
Tone refers to the feeling or attitude the author demonstrates in his writing. You can determine the tone of a passage
by paying attention to the words the author uses, and to how you feel as you read the passage. Adjectives in particular
help shape the tone of a text, so look out for them as you read. Refer back to the notes you made when marking up the
passage, as discussed in Chapter 1 and Section 2 of the Reading Chapter as part of the Pencil on Paper strategy.
The following words may be used by the ACT to describe the tone of the passage, or the attitude of someone mentioned
in the text. This is only a partial list—the ACT may use a number of different words to describe an author’s tone.
Tone Words
Positive
Captivated, Effusive, Enthusiastic, Engaged, Excited, Humorous, Intrigued, Laudatory, Reverent,
Whimsical
Neutral
Academic, Candid, Contemplative, Detached, Dispassionate, Impartial, Judicious, Pragmatic, Scholarly
Negative
Apathetic, Caustic, Condescending, Contemptuous, Cynical, Derisive, Disparaging, Flippant, Grudging,
Skeptical, Vindictive
When you answer a tone question, think back to your impression of the passage, or the section you are asked about.
How did it make you feel? Think of your own word to describe the tone of the text. If you cannot think of a specific
word, try to think more generally about the tone. Was it strong or neutral? Positive or negative? Happy or sad? Then,
compare your prediction to the answer choices.
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Characterization in Literary Narrative/Prose Fiction Passages
As discussed in Section 2, Part 1, the people in literary narrative and prose fiction passages are characters.
Characterization is the process the author uses to give the reader new information about the characters. Writers can
use a number of techniques for characterization, including description, dialogue, and action. Below are some
techniques you can look for while reading these passages.
Techniques for Characterization
Definition
Example
An author might use physical details to suggest something
about the character’s life or personality.
She wore an expensive business suit, diamond earrings,
and an elegant gold watch.
The style or content of a character’s speech can reveal what
the character believes or how he feels.
He stammered, “W-would you, um, I mean, would you like
to maybe, uh, go out with me sometime?”
The way an author describes a character’s actions can tell
you more than just what the character is doing.
As the time drew closer to her audition, she reviewed her
script over and over, biting her nails.
An author might state or paraphrase a character’s inner
monologue to let the reader know what the character is
thinking.
She smiled and thanked her boss, privately thinking that
she was looking forward to the day she never had to see his
smug face again.
The way other characters respond to someone can give
you clues about that character’s situation.
When he walked into the guidance counselor’s office, the
secretary raised an eyebrow and said, “Again?”
Understanding Experiments
As you learned in Section 2, Part 4 understanding Science passages may involve understanding specific experiments
or their data. Experiments measure one thing: the interaction between cause and effect. Experiments measure whether
a change in one thing causes a change in another, and what kind of change occurs.
To start, scientists identify the variables—things or circumstances that might change or can be changed—that might
have some influence on the relationship they want to test. You can get a good idea of what any experiment is about
by paying attention to just two pieces of information: which variables the scientists change (independent variables),
and which they measure (dependent variables).
There may also be a control variable. This is a variable that will be left unchanged, so that scientists can be sure it is
not affecting their results, or so they can compare it to a variable that has been manipulated.
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Experiments are designed to measure the effect of the variable that scientists change on the variable that they measure.
Let’s look at an example:
Example
Using timed growth lights, scientists provided
12 hours of light to plants in Group 1 and 4 hours
of light to plants in Group 2. Scientists controlled
for the effects of nutrition and hydration by using
5 identical soil sources and equal amounts of
and fertilizer to all plants. Growth was measured by
periodically recording the height and leaf size of
plants, and weighing the pots.
We can see that the variable that changed (independent variable) was the amount of light plants received, and the
variable that was measured (dependent variable) was growth. By looking at which variable scientists changed and
which they measured, we can conclude that the experiment was designed to measure the effect of light exposure on
plant growth. We can also tell that scientists were not interested in measuring the effects of hydration or nutrition; the
use of “controlled” indicates that soil type, water, and fertilizer are all control variables.
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