Which statement distinguishes tone from mood?

• A. Tone is the reader's reaction; mood is the author’s bias.
• B. Tone and mood are identical.
• C. Tone is always humorous; mood is always sad.
• D. Tone is the author's attitude toward the subject; mood is the reader's emotional response.

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is understanding who is expressing attitude and who is experiencing emotion. Tone is the author's attitude toward the subject, shown through word choice, sentence structure, and style. Mood, on the other hand, is the emotional atmosphere the text creates for the reader. So the correct statement captures that relationship: tone reflects the author's stance toward the subject, while mood reflects the reader's emotional response.

For example, an author who writes with a sarcastic, biting tone about a social issue may leave readers feeling amused, annoyed, or unsettled, depending on how the tone and context come across. This shows how tone and mood are connected but not the same. The other options blur who is reacting or asserting universal traits of tone and mood that don’t hold in practice: tone isn’t the reader’s reaction, nor is mood simply the author’s bias, and tone isn’t limited to humor while mood isn’t fixed to sadness.