Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:…
2025
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
India has the highest number of malnourished children in the world, with Madhya Pradesh being the worst-affected state. About 47% of children under five in the country, totalling 57 million, are underweight. Even sub-Saharan Africa is better off, with 33% of children malnourished. These shocking figures have been mentioned in UNICEF's 'Progress for Children – A Report Card on Nutrition', released globally.
The other badly affected states in India are Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Bihar and Maharashtra. Over 50% of children in some of these states are malnourished. However, some Indian states have better report cards. Malnourishment among children is significantly low in Goa, Kerala, Mizoram and Tamil Nadu. According to Dr Werner Schultink, UNICEF India's chief of Child Development and Nutrition Programme, the causes for this malnutrition are many: bad quality feeding, high population density, high rate of infectious diseases, high rate of illiteracy among women, gender inequality, low rate of immunisation and high rate of birth of underweight babies.
Select the appropriate tone of the passage from the given alternatives.
- A.
Analytical
- B.
Sarcastic
- C.
Judgemental
- D.
Informative
Attempted by 3 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Tone is the writer's attitude toward the subject, read from HOW the passage presents its material — through word choice and the balance between plain fact-reporting, independent interpretation, irony, and blame — not just WHAT the passage says.
Applying this here: the passage opens with statistics (about 47% of children under five underweight, 57 million children, a 33% figure for comparison) and attributes them to a named UNICEF report; it then names the other affected states and the states with better records purely as reported facts; and the causes of malnutrition are introduced as a direct quotation from a named UNICEF official, Dr Werner Schultink, rather than as the writer's own interpretation. Throughout, the writer's role stays limited to citing data and sourced testimony.
Checking against the other options confirms the same reading: 'Analytical' would need the writer to work through cause-and-effect reasoning independently, but the list of causes here is someone else's quoted statement, not the writer's own analysis; 'Sarcastic' would need irony or mockery, but the passage uses plain statistical language throughout with no ironic turn of phrase; 'Judgemental' would need the writer to voice their own blame or criticism, but no state, official, or group is condemned in the writer's own words — the passage only relays what the report and the expert say.
This consistent pattern of citing statistics, naming the source report, and quoting a named expert — without independent analysis, irony, or blame — is what makes 'Informative' the tone that fits the passage.