Tone Based Questions - 1 | English for CLAT PDF Download

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Mildred reads Mein Kampf. Hitler’s book has been published in two volumes, the first in 1925, the second in 1926. In 1932, it isn’t read widely in Germany—not yet. An English translation hasn’t been published yet either. Mildred worries that Americans don’t understand how dangerous Hitler is. Germans don’t understand either.
Too many are dismissive. Most major German newspapers declined to run reviews of Mein Kampf when the book was published. One newspaper predicted that Hitler’s political career would be “completely finished” after people read his ramblings. Another mocked Hitler’s “fuzzy mind.” Even Nazis and right-wing nationalists took potshots. The pro-Nazi newspaper Deutsche Zeitung sneered at Hitler’s “illogical ranting.” The nationalist newspaper Neue Preussliche Zeitung fumed: “One seeks ingenuity and finds only arrogance, one seeks stimulation and reaps boredom, one seeks love and enthusiasm and finds platitudes, one seeks healthy hatred and finds insults.… Is this the book for the German people? That would be dreadful!” When Hitler bragged that all of Germany was eagerly anticipating his book, the anti-Semitic newspaper Das Bayerische Vaterland scoffed at Hitler’s egomania.
“O how modest! Why not the entire universe?” Cartoons gleefully mocked Hitler. The popular magazine Simplicissimus ran a derisive front-page caricature of Hitler peddling Mein Kampf to uninterested customers in a beer hall. It was at a beer hall in Munich, the Hofbräuhaus, where Hitler, age thirty, delivered one of his first significant speeches.
The occasion was a meeting held on February 24, 1920, by the German Workers’ Party, an obscure political party with only 190 members, Hitler among them. Hitler had fought in the First World War and was still in the army, working in the intelligence department of the Reichswehr. He had a dim view of the German Workers’ Party steering committee, a bickering bunch of drones who chose a priggish doctor to deliver the first speech. When the doctor was done, Hitler leaped onto a long table positioned smack in the middle of the crowd.
His oratorical style was provocative, his language colloquial and at times coarse. He hollered insults at politicians, capitalists, and Jews. He castigated the Reich finance minister for supporting the Treaty of Versailles, a humiliating concession to the victors of the war that would bring Germans to their knees, he warned, unless they fought back. “Our motto is only struggle!” Hitler cried. The beer-hall crowd, a fizzy mix of working-class and middle-class men, erupted—some cheering, some jeering. His controversial speeches fueled attendance at future meetings of the German Workers’ Party, which grew to 3,300 members by the end of 1921, at which point it had a new name, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, nicknamed the Nazi Party. It also had a new chairman, Hitler, who gave himself a new title: Führer (Leader).
Q1: What tone does the paragraph primarily adopt in discussing the initial reception of "Mein Kampf" in Germany?
(a) Optimistic
(b) Dismissive
(c) Satirical
(d) Admiring
Ans: (b)
Sol: The paragraph adopts a dismissive tone towards "Mein Kampf," as evidenced by its focus on the lack of serious attention the book initially received in Germany. Major German newspapers and even some Nazis and right-wing nationalists are portrayed as belittling or mocking the book and Hitler's ideas.

Q2: The tone in which the reactions of various newspapers to Hitler's "Mein Kampf" are described can best be characterized as:
(a) Encouraging
(b) Derogatory
(c) Indifferent
(d) Supportive
Ans: (b)
Sol: The descriptions of the reactions by newspapers to "Mein Kampf" are derogatory. The newspapers are quoted as mocking Hitler's "illogical ranting" and criticizing the book for its lack of ingenuity, stimulation, and meaningful content.

Q3: In the paragraph, how is the tone employed when describing Hitler's speech at the Hofbräuhaus?
(a) Inspirational
(b) Condemnatory
(c) Neutral
(d) Provocative
Ans: (d)
Sol: The tone used to describe Hitler's speech is provocative. It highlights Hitler's confrontational and colloquial oratorical style, including his use of coarse language and insults, which stirred varied reactions from the audience.

Q4: The tone used to portray Hitler's rise in the German Workers' Party can best be described as:
(a) Enthusiastic
(b) Sceptical
(c) Objective
(d) Adulatory
Ans: (b)
Sol: The tone in describing Hitler's rise within the German Workers' Party is sceptical, focusing on the surprising and rapid growth of the party and Hitler's self-appointment as the Führer, suggesting a critical view of his ascent.

Q5: In discussing the public's early perception of Hitler, the paragraph employs a tone that can be best described as:
(a) Admiring
(b) Mocking
(c) Fearful
(d) Neutral
Ans: (b)
Sol: The paragraph employs a mocking tone when discussing the public's early perception of Hitler, as indicated by the inclusion of cartoons and public mockery of Hitler and his book, portraying a general sentiment of ridicule towards him at that time.