Practice bank
Reading comprehension: author's attitude
VerbalReading comprehensionHard
Passage: "Behavioral economists describe anchoring: arbitrary starting numbers skew numerical judgments. In one well-known study, participants who first wrote down the last two digits of their Social Security number then bid on bottles of wine, and those with high digits bid substantially more. Critics object that outside the laboratory, prices are posted and budgets bind, so the effect may shrink in real markets. Still, even seasoned professionals show measurable anchoring: judges issued longer sentences after hearing a prosecutor's high demand, even when instructed to disregard it." The author's attitude toward anchoring research is best described as...
- Adismissive skepticism about whether the effect exists at all
- Bunqualified endorsement of the strongest claims made on its behalf
- Cmeasured acceptance that acknowledges limits to how far the laboratory findings generalize
- Dgrowing impatience with the field's reliance on contrived experiments
- Estrict neutrality that declines to weigh the evidence on either side
Try it before you scroll. Two minutes on the clock, then commit to an answer.
Correct answer: C
Track the author’s moves. They present the effect and a striking study, they give the critics a fair hearing (“prices are posted and budgets bind, so the effect may shrink”), and then they answer the critics with professional evidence (“Still, even seasoned professionals show measurable anchoring”). That is acceptance of the effect plus acceptance of a boundary on it.
- (C) matches both moves: the author accepts anchoring is real (the judges) while granting the critics’ point about generalization (“may shrink in real markets”). Correct.
- (A) is contradicted by “Still,” which pushes back against the critics.
- (B) overshoots: an author who quotes critics approvingly (“may shrink”) is not giving unqualified endorsement.
- (D) misreads tone; nothing in the passage is impatient, and the author uses the professional study with respect.
- (E) fails because the author clearly weighs in: the “Still” sentence sides with the effect’s reality. Neutrality is not the same as balance.
Attitude questions are tone questions. Underline the pivot words (still, yet, but, admittedly) and ask which side each pivot serves. Here the pivot sides with the research while the preceding sentence concedes the critics’ boundary. That combination is the textbook signature of measured acceptance.