Official Explanation
6. The author’s attitude toward the anthropological community’s reaction to Ekman’s work is best described as one of
Difficulty Level: Hard
Explanation
Because the texts used on the GMAT are taken from academic publications, the passages rarely demonstrate strong tones. Most passages are more or less neutral in their treatment of subjects. However, when tone questions do appear, you must be sure that you find evidence in the passage for a particular tone. Don’t rely on your “feelings” about a passage; you need to find concrete support. Also, because tone refers to the author’s opinion of his or her subject, you can’t just look at the examples presented in the passage. A passage could contain criticisms of a theory, but that doesn’t mean the author’s tone is negative. Evidence of tone comes not from the nature of the content of a passage but instead from what the author says about that content.
For this question, you need to go back to the passage and find the parts in which the author talks about the community’s reaction to Ekman’s work. This information is in the last paragraph. The passage states that after Ekman presented his work, he was denounced as a racist and some interpreted his work as evidence of Western hegemony. But these lines only describe what the reaction was, not how the author feels about it. So keep looking. The last line gives an indication of the how the author feels: the community is “like its subject matter: quick to anger but perhaps slow to admit mistakes.” This is the information you need.
Choice A describes the author’s tone as angry but that is not supported by the passage. The anthropologists may have been angry, but the author isn’t.
Choice B is a pretty good match. The author acknowledges that anthropologists are like the people they study—they can get angry quickly but are slower to admit mistakes. There is nothing stronger in the author’s tone than an acceptance of the character of the members of the discipline.
Even though the author describes the negative reaction of the community, there are no indications of “disappointment” in the passage, so choice C is no good.
The author certainly doesn’t agree with the reaction of the community. The passage acknowledges the reaction, but doesn’t indicate support for it, so choice D is wrong. And because the author indicates an understanding of he community’s reaction, the tone can’t be puzzled as choice E states.
Choice B is best.