Underline the words that show feeling, then pick the option that matches how strong they are.
Practice test 1 is free. No card needed.
Tone questions ask how a writer feels about a subject, and the clues are in the words they choose. Children in Year 7 now meet them in Year 8, in the exam expected in June 2027.
Checked by the SelectiveReady team on 12 October 2026 · Updated 27 October 2026 · How we check facts
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ACER says Reading tests finding information in texts, and linking, interpreting, reflecting on and judging their ideas. A tone question asks your child to reflect on how something is said, as well as what is said.
The questions below are ours and share one article, The Great Gully Road Derby, about a billy cart race in a country town. Each one shows the answer and the working, so read them together. For each question, read the key line aloud in two voices, admiring and mocking, and ask which one the words support.
Every March, the town of Wattle Flat closes its steepest street for one Saturday morning and hands it over to the billy carts. The rules of the Gully Road Derby fit on a single page and have not changed in forty years: no engines, no pedals, four wheels, and a working brake, which the judges test by giving each cart a firm push and seeing whether it stops.
The carts themselves are a festival of optimism. This year's field included a converted bathtub, a cart shaped like a loaf of bread, and something built mostly from an old ironing board that its driver, eleven-year-old Aroha, described as 'aerodynamic'. It travelled the course in a series of thoughtful zigzags and finished, to warm applause, in fourth place out of five.
The official timekeeper uses a stopwatch that is older than most of the competitors. Nobody has ever seriously suggested replacing it. When a result is close, the decision is made by a show of hands from the crowd, and the crowd has never once been accused of fairness.
And yet it would be wrong to call the derby a joke. Watch the starting line closely and you will see children who have spent months sanding axles, testing brakes on their driveways, and debating wheel sizes with their parents. You will see Aroha's grandfather, who built his first cart for this race in the 1980s, kneeling beside the ironing board to tighten one last bolt. You will see the kind of concentration that is usually reserved for exams.
The winner this year was a plain wooden cart with no decoration at all. Its driver, Sam, had rebuilt the steering three times. When asked for the secret of her success, she thought for a long moment and said, 'Mostly, I went straight.' It may be the most honest sporting interview ever given.
Which best describes the writer's tone in the second and third paragraphs?
Answer: A
Answer: A
Tone is the writer's attitude, shown by word choice. Phrases such as 'a festival of optimism', 'thoughtful zigzags' and a crowd 'never once accused of fairness' are playful jokes, not attacks. Option B is wrong because the humour is kind; the cart in fourth place still gets 'warm applause'.
How does the writer's tone change in the fourth paragraph?
Answer: C
Answer: C
Look for the turning point: 'And yet it would be wrong to call the derby a joke.' The writer then describes months of careful work with respect, though comparing it with exam concentration keeps a light touch. Option A misses that the seriousness is admired, not mocked. The grandfather and the brake tests are single details, so B and D do not describe the paragraph.
The writer calls Sam's answer 'the most honest sporting interview ever given'. Which best describes the writer's attitude to the answer?
Answer: B
Answer: B
Connect the answer with the sentence before it: Sam 'had rebuilt the steering three times', so going straight was the hard-won achievement. The praise is playful but sincere. Option A is tempting because the line is funny, but the writer is laughing with Sam, not at her. Nothing suggests the writer expected a different winner, so D fails.
Collect the feeling words, then match their strength. A tone option can be wrong for being too strong, not only for being the wrong feeling.
These steps are ours, drawn from the working in the answers above.
Underline words that show feeling, such as 'a festival of optimism' or 'warm applause'.
Is the writer laughing, angry, sad or admiring? If it is funny, is the humour kind or unkind?
Words like 'And yet' or 'but' can mark a change of tone. Read what comes after closely.
Pick the option that fits all the clues. Gentle teasing is not the same as sarcasm.
The tone of a line should fit the paragraph around it.
Each trap below is a wrong option from the questions above. Ask your child which one looked right at first, then go back to the words that decide it.
Read a sentence aloud in two ways, admiring and sarcastic. Talk about which words decide the right one.
Compare two reviews of the same film or game. Which words show how each writer feels?
Build a short list of tone words with your child: playful, earnest, wry, critical, admiring. Use them when you talk about what they read.
Probably less than you think. ACER says there is no need to practise or revise, though its sample questions help a child know the style. Words for attitude come from wide reading and talk, so the home habits above do most of the work.
What a practice sitting adds is the clock: Reading shares 55 minutes with Verbal Reasoning. Start with Practice test 1: one full practice test with results, with a free account. Afterwards you'll see results by skill, so you know whether tone is costing marks at all.
For more passages with worked answers, see VIC selective entry reading questions, or the guide to VIC author's purpose questions.
Practice test 1 marks every answer and shows results by skill: what your child already does well and the three skills to work on next.
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Practice test 1 is free. Then packs from A$109 for 12 months, or A$9 a week, per exam.