Help your child hear how a sentence sounds before deciding what the writer feels.
Practice test 1 is free. No card needed.
A tone question asks how the writing sounds and what the writer feels, shown through word choice rather than said outright. Children in Year 5 now meet them in the ASET on 6 March 2027.
Checked by the SelectiveReady team on 12 October 2026 · Updated 27 October 2026 · How we check facts
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It asks for the feeling behind the words: playful, serious, mocking or admiring. The options are feelings, so your child matches a word to the writing, not to the topic.
These three are ours, on one funny opinion piece in praise of pigeons. They move from the first paragraph to the writer's attitude in the final sentence.
Each shows the answer and the working. Read a sentence aloud in the voice of a wrong option. If it sounds odd, ask your child which words gave the real feeling away.
Nobody writes poems about pigeons. Nobody paints them on tea towels or names football teams after them. Mention a pigeon at a picnic and people will flap their hands and shuffle their sandwiches out of reach. I think this is deeply unfair, and I am here to set the record straight.
Consider, first, the pigeon's sense of direction. A homing pigeon taken hundreds of kilometres from its loft, in a closed basket, can find its way home. Scientists are still arguing about exactly how it does this. I, by comparison, once got lost in a shopping centre car park for forty minutes, and I had a map on my phone.
Consider, too, the pigeon's record of service. For thousands of years, people have used pigeons to carry messages, from the results of ancient sporting contests to news of ships arriving in port. Long before anyone had heard of the internet, a pigeon with a slip of paper tied to its leg was one of the fastest ways to send word across the countryside. Not bad for a bird most people only notice when it is pecking at a chip.
And yet here they are, strutting about our railway stations, nodding their heads as though agreeing with a conversation only they can hear, utterly unbothered by our low opinion of them.
Perhaps that is what I admire most. The pigeon has been mocked, shooed and ignored for centuries, and it has carried on regardless, finding its way home, again and again, without anybody's applause. There are worse things to be than a pigeon.
Which word best describes the tone of the first paragraph?
Answer: B
Answer: B
Tone is the feeling behind the words. Tea towels, football teams and people shuffling their sandwiches away are funny images, so the tone is playful. Option A is tempting because the writer calls the situation 'deeply unfair', but the complaint is about pigeons and tea towels, so it is put on for fun rather than real anger.
The story about getting lost in a car park gives the second paragraph a tone of
Answer: A
Answer: A
Ask who is being made fun of. The writer compares a pigeon that finds its way home over hundreds of kilometres with themselves, lost for forty minutes with a map. The joke is on the writer. Option D is the reverse: the writer is admitting a weakness, not boasting.
What attitude does the writer show in the final sentence, 'There are worse things to be than a pigeon'?
Answer: C
Answer: C
Read the sentence with the one before it: the pigeon has 'carried on regardless' without applause, and the writer says this is what they 'admire most'. Saying there are worse things to be means being like a pigeon would be good. D is tempting, but the writer admires the pigeon for not needing applause. A misses that admiration.
Name the feeling first, then find the words that prove it. A topic can be serious while the writing is playful, so the words matter more than the subject.
Ask how the words make you feel: amused, sad, cross or warm.
Funny pictures, like people shuffling their sandwiches away from a pigeon, point to a playful tone.
A writer laughing at their own mistake is being modest, not boasting.
A last line can sum up the writer's attitude, so read it with the line before it.
Each trap comes from one of the worked questions. Read them once you have gone through the questions together, and talk about which word could mislead your child.
A strong word read too seriously: 'deeply unfair' sounds angry, but the complaint is about pigeons and tea towels. It's put on for fun.
Getting the direction wrong: in the car park story, the writer is lost for forty minutes with a map. That's admitting a weakness, so 'proud boasting' is the reverse.
Pity instead of respect: the writer says what they 'admire most' about the pigeon. The ending shows respect, not pity.
Tone is easiest to hear out loud, so read to each other. A sentence in the wrong voice sounds odd, and that's the lesson.
Three worked explanations show the method. A full Reading Comprehension test, 35 questions in 35 minutes, shows whether your child hears tone at speed.
Practice test 1 is free, and the results by skill show whether tone questions are costing marks. Our ASET reading sample questions page has eight more worked questions, and the guide to ASET Reading covers the rest.
Playful and mocking, or serious and gloomy, can sit close together. The handbook's tip is to narrow it to two of the four options by ruling out obvious wrong answers, then choose the word the whole passage supports.
Year 6 children in Perth metro, Bunbury and Albany sit it on 6 March 2027. Regional and interstate dates are on the ASET dates page.
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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