Extract:
Yoga
Yoga is an exercise that everyone should try. Yoga was first practiced thousands of years ago. It helps connect the mind and body by taking a person through a series of poses while emphasizing controlled breathing and meditation. Every year hundreds of thousands of people enjoy the benefits of yoga by treating the movements and postures as exercise.
Yoga works by safely stretching muscles, ligaments, and tendons. This helps release the buildup of lactic acid in the muscles that can often cause stiffness, tension, and even pain. Yoga helps develop the body’s range of mobility and increases the ease of everyday movements. Many participants report improved flexibility, especially in the trunk and shoulders, after only two months of practice. Yoga improves posture, balance, and sleep, and it also helps with weight control.
Physically, many yoga poses help build upper-body strength, which is increasingly important as the body ages. Other poses help strengthen the muscles in the lower back, and when properly practiced, nearly all of the poses strengthen the body’s abdominal, or core, muscles. This helps improve the circulation of blood that increases the delivery of nutrients and oxygen to the body and also removes wastes produced by the body. When combined with yoga’s benefit of lowering a person’s heart rate, the result is increased cardiovascular endurance.
The University of Maryland School of Nursing recently published a study that showed yoga was especially effective at reducing stress. In addition, researchers found that yoga surpassed traditional aerobic exercise, often significantly, in improving flexibility, pain tolerance, and daily energy levels. One enthusiast says that her advice to skeptics is simple, “Take a deep breath, stretch, and indulge in a few poses. You’ll feel better.”
Identify the overall tone of the essay.
-
A
Earnest
-
B
Negative
-
C
Self-satisfied
-
D
Skeptical
The overall tone is earnest, demonstrating sincere enthusiasm and genuine conviction about yoga's multifaceted benefits without exaggeration or self-satisfaction.
A) Earnest
The author writes with heartfelt conviction evident in the opening declaration "Yoga is an exercise that everyone should try" and sustained through detailed benefit descriptions, research citations, and the enthusiast's testimonial, all presented with authentic passion rather than casual observation or forced advocacy.
B) Negative
The passage exclusively highlights positive outcomes, improved flexibility, strength, stress reduction, better sleep, cardiovascular benefits, with no criticism or drawbacks mentioned.
C) Self-satisfied
While advocating for yoga, the author relies on external validation (University of Maryland research, enthusiast quote) rather than personal superiority. The tone encourages rather than boasts.
D) Skeptical
No doubt or questioning appears, the author presents benefits confidently, addressing skeptics only through the enthusiast's invitation to try yoga rather than expressing personal skepticism.
Conclusion
Tone analysis requires evaluating emotional quality across an entire passage. The consistent presentation of yoga's benefits with sincere recommendation, supported by research yet avoiding exaggeration, creates an earnest rather than skeptical, negative, or self-congratulatory tone.