Copying Is Not Inferring in Unseen Comprehension
An unseen comprehension passage in a mock paper reports: 'In 2023, a city replaced four car lanes with a two-way cycle track. Cycle trips rose by 38 per cent, retail vacancy fell by 2 percentage points, and average delivery-van loading time increased by 11 minutes. The pilot was modest but uneven.' A student answers the question 'What can be inferred about the pilot's trade-offs?' with: 'The writer is against cars because cycle trips rose by 38 per cent. This shows the pilot was a success.' The answer is 30 words, copies one statistic, and treats 'success' as the writer's view. The question carries 3 marks: 1 for a valid inference, 1 for textual support, 1 for showing awareness of the writer's qualified stance.
1. Diagnose the two errors in the student's answer and explain what an inference must add to a copied fact.
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The first error is that the student copies a fact, cycle trips rose by 38 per cent, and calls it an inference. A fact reports what the passage says; an inference states what the fact implies in context, for example that more people were willing to cycle when space was reallocated. The second error is that the student turns 'success' into the writer's view, ignoring the phrase 'modest but uneven'. The writer is qualified: the rise in cycling and fall in retail vacancy are gains, but the 11-minute increase in loading time is a cost. A valid inference must therefore hold both sides together, not choose one statistic and convert it into a verdict.
2. Write a 50-60-word model answer that earns all three marks.
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The pilot produced uneven trade-offs: it encouraged cycling and may have helped retail, but it shifted delay onto delivery vehicles. The writer's phrase 'modest but uneven' suggests that the gains were real but not sufficient to call the pilot an unqualified success.
Why this earns all three: it states a trade-off inference, uses two pieces of textual support, and correctly reads the writer's qualified stance rather than inventing a pro-car or pro-cycle position.
3. Identify one word or phrase in the passage that signals the writer's stance and explain its effect.
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One signal is 'modest but uneven'. 'Modest' limits the scale of the gains; 'uneven' signals that benefits and costs were distributed differently across road users. The conjunction 'but' is also important because it balances the positive statistics against the loading-time increase. A student who notices this phrase will avoid the trap of treating the writer as either a cycling advocate or a car lobbyist; the stance is evaluative and cautious.