Inferences questions end with an incomplete sentence and ask for the choice that most logically completes the text.
The passage lays out observations or a line of reasoning, and the correct ending follows from them without adding outside assumptions. A typical setup describes a result that held under one condition but not another, and the logical conclusion is limited to what that contrast actually shows.
Wrong choices often go too far, claiming a cause was proven when the evidence only suggests it, or they repeat a detail without finishing the logic. Literary passages may ask what a character's action implies.
Sample questions
Pick an answer to see whether it is right — nothing is saved, and nothing needs an account.
Question 1Mid
Archaeologists excavating a coastal settlement found almost no wooden fishing tools in dry upper layers but many such tools in a deeper, waterlogged layer. Stone sinkers occurred throughout the site, and impressions in hardened clay show that wooden tools had once been present in some upper-layer rooms. Excavators also recovered ceramic fragments and animal bones from both layers. This evidence suggests that
Which choice most logically completes the text?
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Answer: D — differences in preservation, rather than in tool use alone, help explain the layers’ different contents.
The clay impressions indicate that wooden tools existed in the upper layers even though the wood itself is gone. Waterlogging likely preserved wood in the deeper layer while wood decayed above.
Question 2Easier
A linguist proposed that listeners identify unfamiliar speakers partly by each speaker’s characteristic pauses. In recordings with the words unchanged, shortening every pause to the same duration made listeners much less accurate at matching voices to speakers. Their accuracy did not fall to chance, however. The findings indicate that
Which choice most logically completes the text?
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Answer: C — pause patterns aid speaker identification but are not the only cues listeners use.
Accuracy fell when distinctive pauses were equalized, so pause patterns help with speaker identification. Accuracy did not fall to chance, so listeners also use other cues and do not rely on pauses alone. Equalizing pauses changed accuracy rather than leaving it unchanged, and the study does not compare unfamiliar speakers with familiar ones.
Question 3Easier
The following text is from Lena Hartwell’s 2014 novel The Quiet Ledger.
The shopkeeper checked the figure entered for the gilt lamp in the day’s sales. It was a fraction of the lamp’s price; the apprentice had let it go for almost nothing. He reached for the ledger, then closed it and turned to the boy, who stood waiting. “Explain how the error occurred,” he said. When the apprentice had finished, the shopkeeper said, “You will design a system that keeps this from happening again.”
Based on the text, what is true about the shopkeeper?
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Answer: B — He values learning from the mistake more than immediately assigning blame.
The shopkeeper closes the ledger, asks the apprentice to explain the error, and then has him design a preventive system. Those actions show that he values learning from the mistake more than immediately assigning blame.
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