Read this excerpt from the article "Nixon Resigns" by Carroll Kilpatrick. One official, who has known Mr. Nixon well for many years and remains a White House aide, commented: "He is obviously a bad judge of character. But a lot was accomplished. So much more could have been accomplished but for these fun and games. It was such a stupid thing to happen." Which statement best explains how the speaker's use of language affects the tone of this excerpt? It creates a formal and proud tone. It creates an informal and sentimental tone. It creates a formal and earnest tone. It creates an informal and frustrated tone.

The tone is the way the author approaches the subject or idea in a piece of writing. It is created through the choice of words and phrases, the way they are organized and the level of formality, and it may indicate a feeling or several.

Now, in the excerpt, the speaker creates an informal and frustrated tone because of his choices of informal words such as "obviously", "It was such a stupid thing to happen", "a lot" instead of its more formal version "many", etc., and it also has a frustrated tone because the speaker approaches the resignation of Nixon as something unfair, they are dissatisfied and discontent because the events did not occur as they wanted to.