The short answer
Read the author's attitude — admiring, skeptical, ironic — through word choice and what's left unsaid.
Written and checked by GAMSAT tutors — not AI-generated.
Try the reasoning style
We treat forgetting as a failure — a lapse to be patched with reminders and records. Yet a mind that kept everything could not think; it would drown in the undifferentiated noise of every moment it had ever lived. To forget is not so much to lose information as to decide, mostly without our noticing, what was never worth keeping.
The author's argument relies most directly on which unstated assumption?
Pick an option to see how the tutor reasons to the answer — not just whether you were right.
Not quite — the answer is B.
Work backwards from the conclusion: a mind that ‘kept everything’ supposedly ‘could not think.’ That only follows if thinking means leaving most of experience out — so B is the premise the argument quietly rests on. A raises reliability, which the passage never weighs; C contradicts ‘mostly without our noticing’; D smuggles in a claim about intellect the passage never makes. The question rewards finding the hidden premise, not recalling a fact.
Tone is the author's attitude toward their subject — admiring, critical, nostalgic, ironic. It's carried less by what is said than by how: word choice, emphasis, and what's implied between the lines. Section I tests it constantly, and it's where careful readers pull ahead.
Tone lives in connotation
Two words can mean the same thing but carry different feeling: "thrifty" vs "stingy," "confident" vs "arrogant." The author's word choices (connotations) reveal their attitude. Underline the loaded words and the tone usually emerges.
Said ≠ endorsed
Don't confuse what an author states with what they believe. Authors quote opponents, use irony (saying the opposite of what they mean), and present views to criticise them. Always ask whether the author is endorsing a statement or setting it up to knock it down.
Worked example
"Ah yes, another 'revolutionary' gadget — because what the world truly needed was a slightly thinner phone." What is the author's tone?
Check yourself
An author writes about a politician using words like 'so-called expert' and 'allegedly principled'. The tone is best described as:
Key takeaways
- Tone = the author's attitude toward the subject.
- It's carried by connotation — the feeling behind word choices.
- Distinguish what an author states from what they endorse.
- Watch for irony, sarcasm and quoting-to-criticise.
- Underline loaded words; the tone usually emerges from them.
Practise this with real GAMSAT-style questions
Free account: a timed diagnostic, an AI tutor that explains every answer, essay marking on the official rubric, and a plan built around your weak spots.