Critical Reading Questions with Impliance

lotf629
Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:31:52 +0000

A few quick principles:

1) When you infer, you are not guessing or even using your intuition. You are spotting logical connections.

This is the most important rule.

On the SAT, you often need to spot a connection between a specific citation (given in the question) and the main idea of the paragraph (usually the first sentence or the most general sentence). You may also need to spot a connection between a specific citation and its context (that is, the text above or below it).

The correct answer to an inference question almost always comes from a connection between the citation given in the question and something else in the passage. So take the time to look!

Consider the central ideas of the passage. Reread the context. Try to find connections in the passage that will help you answer the question.

2) Because doing inference questions often requires rereading, you should always do them last.

At first, it’s okay to practice inference questions with no time limit, just to get the hang of it. First, try to get these questions right (even if it takes forever). Then you can start worrying about speed.

3) If the question asks you to infer something from a citation, the citation and the correct answer may have slightly different topics. For instance, if the citation comes from a couple of sentences about how oranges grow very well in the tropics, the inference may not be about oranges at all. Inference questions often test your ability to spot connections between different topics, so don’t rely on subject matter to make your decision.

4) Inference questions sometimes require you to understand how SAT passages use opposites and contrasts. For instance, take a look at the following sentence (from a real test):

“But unlike a man, whose self-worth rose through his economic exertions, a woman who did likewise risked. . . shame for those around her.”

Here, we can infer that this woman’s self-worth DOES NOT rise through her economic exertions because she is UNLIKE a man, and a man’s self-worth DOES rise through his economic exertions. We have made an inference by understanding the use of opposites in the passage. Here, men and women are shown to be exactly opposite in an important way. Although the passage sounds like it’s talking about men, the author is really making a point about women. So pay attention to the use of opposites or negatives (both in the passage and in the choices).

Remember: inference questions are connection questions!