What Devan's Tin Suggests
A Grade 6 group is practising inference. Their teacher gives them this paragraph and reminds them that every answer must be supported by words in the text, not by guesses about how Devan feels:
Devan sells cold water at the market from six in the morning until the last bus leaves. Each afternoon he counts his coins twice, wraps them in a page from an old newspaper and pushes the packet into a tin beneath the stall. He does not buy the fried rice that he sells to other people. Once a week he walks to the pharmacy and pays for a small brown bottle. The pharmacist knows him now and keeps it ready behind the counter.
The group has three questions. Each answer must quote or point to at least one phrase from the paragraph, and the teacher warns that 'I think he feels sad' is not an inference - it is a guess.
1. What does the paragraph suggest about why Devan counts his coins twice? Support your answer with words from the text.
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Inference: the money matters a great deal to him and he is guarding against loss or error, because what he earns is needed for something specific.
Evidence, in order of strength:
- counts his coins twice - a routine of checking, which people do when a shortage would be serious, not when money is plentiful.
- wraps them in a page from an old newspaper and pushes the packet into a tin beneath the stall - the care is about concealment as well as tidiness; a tin beneath a stall is a hiding place.
- He does not buy the fried rice that he sells to other people - he is denying himself something he handles all day, which points to a purpose for the savings.
What the text does not say: it never states that he is poor, worried, or saving for anything in particular. A strong answer keeps to what the details imply. Saying 'he is poor' overreaches; saying 'he is treating the money as spoken for' is supported, because the self-denial and the hiding both point the same way.
2. What can you infer about the small brown bottle, and why might the writer leave it unnamed?
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Inference: the bottle is medicine bought regularly, most likely for someone in Devan's household rather than for a casual purchase. Three details support this: it is bought once a week, which is a repeat need rather than a one-off; it is bought at a pharmacy, which narrows the possibilities considerably; and the pharmacist keeps it ready behind the counter, which suggests the pharmacist expects the purchase and knows what is needed in advance.
Why leave it unnamed? The writer withholds the word medicine so that the reader assembles it from the clues - pharmacy, weekly visit, small brown bottle, a keeper who prepares it. Naming it outright would turn the paragraph into a statement of fact; leaving it unnamed makes the reader do the work and feel the weight of the weekly walk. There is also a practical effect: because the bottle is never labelled, it can stand for whatever the household needs, and the reader's attention stays on Devan's routine rather than on a medical case.
Caution: the paragraph does not say who the medicine is for. An answer claiming it is for his mother has guessed beyond the text.
3. Which is the safer inference from this paragraph - 'Devan is unkind' or 'Devan is careful with money'? Explain using evidence, and name the kind of claim that would be unsafe.
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'Devan is careful with money' is far safer. It rests on repeated, observable actions: he counts twice, wraps and hides the packet, and refuses himself the food he sells. Three details all point the same way, which is what makes an inference strong. Crucially, the claim is modest - careful with money - not a claim about his whole character.
'Devan is unkind' is not supported at all. Nothing in the paragraph describes how he treats another person. A reader might be tempted by he does not buy the fried rice, but that detail shows self-denial, not cruelty, and it is the opposite of unkind if the money is going towards the medicine.
Unsafe claims to avoid:
- Claims about feelings with no evidence (he is lonely).
- Claims that go beyond the text's scope (he will never escape the market).
- Claims that confuse what is shown with what is merely possible. The test is whether you can point to a phrase and say what it would be doing in the paragraph if your claim were false.