The Inference Item Nobody Can Find
A reading passage describes a village where a new road was built. The text states: 'Before the road, the journey to the market took six hours. Now it takes forty minutes. Yet the number of farmers selling at the market has fallen by half.' The question asks: 'What can be inferred about the farmers?' Options: A) They no longer grow crops. B) Faster transport made it easier to sell elsewhere. C) The road was badly built. D) They prefer to stay in the village. Most students choose A or D. One student objects: 'The text never says they sell elsewhere - so B is not in the text either.' The teacher has 15 minutes.
1. Explain the difference between 'stated in the text' and 'inferable from the text', and show why B is the intended answer.
Read the worked answer
Stated means the information appears explicitly. Inferable means the text gives premises from which the conclusion follows with high confidence, even though it is not written.
The premises: (1) travel time collapsed from six hours to forty minutes; (2) market participation halved. The puzzle is that better transport should increase market access. The only explanation consistent with both facts is that the improved access opened other outlets - a larger town, a buyer who collects from the village - making the old market less attractive.
Why the others fail:
- A overreaches - halved sales ≠ stopped growing.
- C is unsupported - nothing about road quality.
- D contradicts the logic - staying home would not explain the fall in sales.
Answer to the objecting student: inference does not require the words to appear; it requires the conclusion to be the best explanation of what does appear. B is the only option that resolves the tension in the passage.
2. Give the class a transferable test-taking procedure for inference items, and a way to eliminate options quickly under time pressure.
Read the worked answer
Procedure - 'Two facts, one gap':
- Underline the two facts the question depends on (here: time fell; sales fell).
- Name the tension between them ('better access should raise sales').
- Ask: which option resolves the tension?
Elimination test - the three failure modes:
- Too far (A): says more than the text supports.
- Off-topic (C): introduces information the passage never discusses.
- Contradicts (D): conflicts with the stated facts.
Any option that is not too far, off-topic, or contradictory, and that explains the tension, is the answer. This reduces four options to a decision in seconds and gives students language to justify their choice, which is what the examiner's rationale needs.