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Evaluating Viewpoint, Argument and Bias: Question 7

Syllabus R3, R4

Multiple choice 1 mark

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

Ever since Marchbank Insurance announced that all staff must return to the office five days a week starting next month, the building's car park has become a battlefield fought over three parking spaces short of what anyone actually needs.

Management insists the policy will "rebuild the culture we lost during remote work." What it will actually rebuild is the two-hour daily commute that used to eat into employees' evenings, their sleep, and, frankly, their will to live.

Nobody is arguing that office time has no value. Teams genuinely do solve some problems faster face to face. But five mandatory days, for every single role, regardless of what that role actually requires? That is not culture-building. That is a company too nervous to trust its own staff to work without being watched.

If Marchbank truly believes in its people, it should offer a hybrid model that lets teams choose what works, not force a blanket rule dressed up as a return to "togetherness."

Which phrase from the passage is an example of hyperbole (deliberate exaggeration for effect)?

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

Step 1: Recall what hyperbole does

Hyperbole is deliberate, obvious exaggeration used for effect, not a genuine claim the writer expects the reader to take literally, but a way of amplifying a feeling (in this case, resentment at the commute) so it lands more forcefully than a modest, accurate description would.

Step 2: Test each option

  • A: A specific, plausible figure. There is nothing exaggerated about a commute lasting two hours; it is stated as a straightforward fact.
  • B: The sentence escalates from two believable losses (evenings, sleep) to an extreme, disproportionate final claim. That a commute affects someone’s “will to live.” No reasonable reader takes this literally; it is exaggeration used to intensify the sense of harm the policy causes.
  • C: A calm, constructive suggestion, not an exaggerated claim.
  • D: A deliberately measured, fair-minded concession, the opposite of exaggeration.

Final answer

Option B (“their evenings, their sleep, and, frankly, their will to live”) is the example of hyperbole, escalating an ordinary complaint into a dramatic, exaggerated claim to intensify the reader’s sympathy.