Studyledge

Evaluating Viewpoint, Argument and Bias: Question 10

Syllabus R3, R4

Multiple choice 1 mark

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

There is, I will admit, a reasonable conversation to be had about street lighting at Christmas. Bright displays can affect sleep for young children, and a small number of neighbours have genuinely struggled with the flashing patterns some households now favour. These are fair points, and any thoughtful person should be willing to hear them.

Except, of course, "thoughtful" is not exactly the word for the residents who have spent the last three winters circulating petitions against Mr. Okafor's light display two doors down. The same display that raised £600 for the children's hospital last December, incidentally, while its critics were presumably indoors, guarding their beige curtains from the horror of a single string of fairy lights.

One petition, I am reliably informed, described the display as "an assault on the character of the street." An assault. As though eleven days of synchronised reindeer constitutes grievous bodily harm, rather than, say, mild seasonal cheer that some people have decided to treat as a personal insult.

Perhaps next year the light-averse brigade could simply close their curtains, the way the rest of us close ours to opinions we would rather not hear.

Which phrase from the passage best illustrates the writer's shift from the measured, reasonable tone of the opening paragraph to a mocking, sarcastic tone later on?

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

Worked solution

Step 1: Locate the tonal shift

The opening paragraph is genuinely balanced: it concedes that lighting can disrupt sleep and that some objections are “fair points.” The question asks for the moment this measured tone gives way to mockery, a shift signalled by the word “Except” opening paragraph two.

Step 2: Test each option

  • A: Still part of the calm, concessive opening tone, the opposite of what the question asks for.
  • B: Imagines objecting neighbours absurdly “guarding their beige curtains” against “the horror of a single string of fairy lights.” The exaggerated, mocking image (treating a minor decoration as a dramatic threat) is a clear marker of sarcasm, directly contradicting the fair-minded tone of paragraph one.
  • C: A neutral, factual detail (the sum raised for charity) with no mocking quality in itself.
  • D: Part of the writer’s genuine, balanced concession in the opening paragraph, not the later sarcastic shift.

Final answer

Option B, “guarding their beige curtains from the horror of a single string of fairy lights”, is the clearest example of the shift into a mocking, sarcastic tone, using absurd exaggeration to ridicule the objecting neighbours rather than engage with their concerns.