Three Answers to One Inference Question
You teach English to Class 6 in a government school in Dehradun. There are 42 students, many reading below grade level. You give a 60-word passage about a village library. It says: 'Meena opened the book twice. Each time the lamp went out before she could read more than a page. On the third day she put the book back on the shelf.' The question is: 'Why did Meena return the book unread?' Options: A) She found the story boring. B) She had no light to read by. C) The librarian asked for it back. D) She had already read it. Three students answer: Ravi chooses A, Sana chooses C, Iqbal chooses B. Your key says B. Sana's mother, a teacher herself, argues that C is also possible because the passage does not say the librarian did not ask for it.
1. Analyse Ravi's, Sana's and Iqbal's responses. What does each reveal, and how will you respond to Sana's mother?
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Ravi's choice imports a feeling ('boring') that the passage never gives; he is probably using a familiar story script rather than the text. Sana's choice is logically possible but unsupported: the passage gives a cause for not reading (the lamp going out) and no evidence of a librarian. Iqbal connects the lamp detail to the outcome, which is the inference the item intends. To Sana's mother, concede the logical point: C is not impossible in real life. Then explain the difference between 'possible' and 'best supported by this passage'. The fault is partly the item's: 'Why did she return it?' invites a real-world cause, while the passage supports only a textual one. The fair response is to credit B, explain the evidence, and revise the wording for future use to 'According to the passage, why could Meena not finish the book?' This models intellectual honesty rather than defending a key by authority.
2. Rewrite the item so that it has one defensible answer and still tests inference, and design one follow-up item with a literal distractor.
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Rewrite: 'The passage says Meena put the book back on the third day. Which sentence best explains why she had not finished it?' Options: A) She did not like the story. B) The lamp went out before she could read more than a page. C) The librarian wanted the book back. D) She had read it before. B is now directly warranted, and C and A are ruled out as unsupported rather than impossible. Follow-up item: 'Which words in the passage tell us that Meena tried more than once?' Options: A) 'opened the book twice', B) 'village library', C) 'on the third day', D) 'put the book back'. The key is A; C is a literal time phrase that does not answer the question, and D is a literal action phrase. This pair separates literal location of information from inference about cause, so the next lesson can target the difference.