Inferences

The question is always “Which choice most logically completes the text?” Next to it is one paragraph, often about a study, whose last sentence stops at a blank. You won't need any outside knowledge.

The question never changes, so the words right before the blank tell you what goes in it. These are the ones you'll see most:

Engineers expected the new cables on a harbor bridge to rust as fast as the old ones, since both sets are made of the same steel. After five years of salt spray, however, the new cables showed far less rust than the old ones had at the same age. Unlike the old cables, the new ones carry a thin zinc coating. Therefore, ______

Which choice most logically completes the text?

• A. cables made of the same steel rust at about the same rate.
• B. salt spray rusts steel faster than rainwater does.
• C. the zinc coating stopped the new cables from rusting.
• D. the zinc coating likely slowed the rusting of the new cables.

1. Read the words before the blank first. “Therefore” asks for what the facts lead to. Then read the paragraph from the top.

2. Say the facts back in short, plain sentences. Here that might be “Same steel. New ones rusted less. Only the new ones are coated.”

3. Find the turn, if there is one. “However” turns from what the engineers expected to what happened. A turn can also go from an older view to the evidenceInformation used to back up a claim, like a study’s results or a quote. against it. Either way, the answer comes from the side after the turn.

4. Predict the answer, in your own words, before you look at the choices. No sentence says why the new cables rusted less, so put two facts together. The coating is the one difference the paragraph names, and the coated cables rusted less, so the coating probably slowed the rust. Keep the “probably,” since one bridge points to the coating without proving it.

   If you can't find the words, predict the direction (something slowed the rust on the new cables) and sort the choices by that.

5. Check every choice, and name what's wrong with each one you cross off.

   • A is what the engineers expected, and the result proved it wrong.
   • B may be true, but the paragraph never mentions rainwater.
   • C and D both say the coating did it, so look only at the words where they differ. C says “stopped,” but the new cables did rust, just less. D says “likely slowed,” which is as far as the facts go.

   Ending up with two choices that fit is normal on a hard question. Find the sentence that decides the words where they differ, instead of rereading everything. If you can't name what's wrong with a choice, check it again.

“After five years of salt spray, the new cables, which carry a zinc coating, rusted far less than the old ones, most likely because ______”

After “therefore,” an explanation can be right, as long as the facts lead to it. The answer to the bridge question, “the zinc coating likely slowed the rusting of the new cables,” is an explanation.

If the sentence above ended “casting doubt on the idea that ______” instead, the blank would need the belief the facts go against, such as “a coating makes no difference to rust.”

The right answer can sound plain and obvious, so don't cross a choice off just for sounding familiar.

Reading dense and technical passages covers hard sentences in full.

• Give long names short labels. “Mills built before 1850 burned wood; those built after it ran on coal and stood beside the new rail lines” becomes “Old mills: wood. New mills: coal, near rails.” If an argument has no people or places in it, use labels like “the first view” and “the older method.”
• Break up one long sentence. When the sentence with the blank holds the whole argument, split it at its commas and at words like “but” and “although.” Say each piece as its own short sentence before you predict.
• Work out the numbers. “41 nesting pairs in 2015 and 29 in 2023” is a drop of 12. Write “down” and predict from that.

“The soil stayed wet all week, so she left the bulbs in their crate and kept checking the forecast. Therefore, ______”

The answer here is something like “she is waiting for drier soil before she plants the bulbs.” The paragraph never says “drier,” but the wet soil and the bulbs left in their crate are both there.

When one choice sounds more expert than another, name what it adds and find the sentence behind it.

“After five years of salt spray, however, the new cables showed far less rust than the old ones had at the same age. Unlike the old cables, the new ones carry a thin zinc coating.”

A stronger claimSomething a passage says is true, which the rest of it backs up or limits. needs stronger evidence. When a choice sounds surer than the paragraph, say what it would need and look for it.

A choice can also turn “helps” into “is required,” or “nobody has checked” into “it's false.”

“The new wheat kept its full yield through two dry summers, although every test field was irrigated. Therefore, ______”

Limits like this are easy to skim past. Look after “although” or “while,” inside parentheses or dashes, and in a description next to a name. “Only partly,” “unless,” and “at least in the short term” set limits too.

A limit can also sit far from the blank, even in the first sentence. So after you predict, reread the first sentence and check that your answer still fits.

“In the trial, only plants that carry the gene survived the frost. Every plant in plot B survived it. Therefore, ______”

Watch the words that say how many, like “all,” “most,” and “only.” “Most” needs a count. A result stays with the cases studied unless the paragraph says they stand for a larger group.

“On a stretch of highway with new screens, deer crossings fell by half. On a matching stretch nearby with no screens, crossings held steady. Therefore, ______”

Check what kind of link a choice claims, too. Two things can happen together without one causing the other, so “causes” needs something that rules out other explanations, like the matching stretch here. Without that, “is associated with” is as far as the facts go.

“Students who used the app scored no differently from those who didn't.”

“Woodland deer feed after dark. The grassland antelope, by contrast, feed at midday, when lions are usually resting. This suggests that ______”

The answer has to be about the antelope, because “this” points back to the sentence about them. Something like “the antelope may time their feeding to avoid lions” fits.

If the blank sits inside someone else's view, as in “Critics of the theory argue that ______,” say whose claim it is before you predict. Then make the answer as sure or as doubtful as that person is. With a double negative or one condition inside another, first say plainly who believes what.

“Drip irrigation cut water use on the test plots by a third. The flooded plots weren't measured.”

You can spot a comparison without rereading, so look for one first. Words like “more,” “better,” and “the most” compare things. So do “primarily” and “the main,” which rank one cause above others.

The paragraph explains its own technical terms. These words turn up in the choices with nothing to explain them.

Work through the three examples with the five steps, then try five more.