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Evaluating Viewpoint, Argument and Bias: Question 4

Syllabus R3, R4

Multiple choice 1 mark

Read the following opinion piece, then answer the question below.

Elmsworth Square has been the beating heart of the town centre for generations. A place office workers, market traders and pensioners alike have shared without complaint, until now. Since the town council fenced off half of the square for a new "dog exercise area" last spring, the rest of us who simply want a quiet bench to eat lunch on have been pushed to the margins of our own public space.

Council records show that only 340 residents responded to the original consultation, out of a town of nearly 12,000 people. Dog owners, naturally, are thrilled with the arrangement, but everybody else has quietly stopped visiting the square at lunchtime. The fenced area covers roughly half of Elmsworth Square, leaving barely enough room for the market stall that has traded there every Saturday for twenty years. The noise, near-constant barking from mid-morning onwards, has made the remaining space far less pleasant for anyone hoping for a quiet lunch break.

Elmsworth Square belongs to the whole town, and it is time the fenced area was removed and the entire square reopened to the public it was originally built for.

Which of these sentences from the passage is an opinion presented as though it were an established fact, rather than a view the writer has clearly signalled as their own opinion?

Choose an answer to check it, then compare with the worked solution below.
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Worked solution

Step 1: Distinguish “opinion” from “opinion disguised as fact”

The question is not simply asking which sentence is an opinion, several of these sentences involve judgement of some kind. It is asking which sentence states an opinion using the grammar and confidence of an established fact, with nothing to signal that it is actually a debatable claim.

Step 2: Test each option

  • A: Attributed to “council records,” a named and checkable source. This is a genuine fact as presented, not an opinion.
  • B: States that an entire group of people (“dog owners”) share exactly the same feeling (“are thrilled”), with no survey, quotation or evidence offered anywhere in the passage. The word “naturally” nudges the reader to accept this sweeping claim as obviously true rather than as an assumption. This is opinion disguised as fact.
  • C: A neutral, descriptive statement about the size of the fenced area and the market stall. It contains no judgement or opinion at all.
  • D: Clearly signalled as the writer’s own recommendation (“it is time…”), so while it is an opinion, it is openly presented as one rather than disguised as fact.

Final answer

Option B (“Dog owners, naturally, are thrilled with the arrangement”) is the opinion presented as though it were an established fact.