© 2008 Townsend Press Fourth Edition John Langan Fourth Edition John Langan T EN S TEPS TO B UILDING C OLLEGE R EADING S KILLS

Chapter Eight: Inferences THIS CHAPTER IN A NUTSHELL Authors often suggest, or imply, ideas, rather than stating them directly. Discovering ideas that are not stated directly is called making inferences. We make inferences all the time—in life and in visual and reading materials of all types. To make logical inferences, we must look closely at the information available and use our own experience and common sense.

INFERENCES Inferences are ideas that are not stated directly. They are conclusions we draw from what we see, hear, and read.

MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT VISUAL MATERIALS Cartoon © The New Yorker Collection 2002 David Sipress from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved. A.The boy doesn’t like monkeys. B.The boy has probably never seen animals in a zoo. Which inference is more logical, based on the information suggested by the cartoon?

MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT VISUAL MATERIALS Cartoon © The New Yorker Collection 2002 David Sipress from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved. A.The boy doesn’t like monkeys. Nothing the boy says or does suggests he dislikes the monkey. His expression suggests concern for the monkey. B.The boy has probably never seen animals in a zoo. The boy would not be so puzzled or upset if he were used to seeing animals behind bars. Also, the father has to explain that “This is a zoo.” Which inference is more logical, based on the information suggested by the cartoon?

MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT VISUAL MATERIALS Cartoon © The New Yorker Collection 2002 David Sipress from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved. C. The father is angry with the boy. E.The boy and his father go to the zoo often. D.The boy thinks the monkey is being punished. Which inference is most logical, based on the information suggested by the cartoon?

MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT VISUAL MATERIALS Cartoon © The New Yorker Collection 2002 David Sipress from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved. C. The father is angry with the boy. Nothing indicates the father is angry. E.The boy and his father go to the zoo often. The cartoon suggests the boy has not seen an animal in a cage before, so this is not likely. D.The boy thinks the monkey is being punished. From what the father is saying, we know the boy thinks the monkey is in jail.

Which inference is more logically based on the information given on the book cover? A.The “three true stories” are about the women shown. B.The women are good friends with one another. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT VISUAL MATERIALS

A.The “three true stories” are about the women shown. It is logical to assume that people shown on the cover would be the book’s subjects. B.The women are good friends with one another. There is no evidence that the women know each other. Also, they are in separate photos rather than together in one photo. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT VISUAL MATERIALS Which inference is more logically based on the information given on the book cover?

C.The women’s lives have changed in positive ways. D.All the women had parents who were non-readers. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT VISUAL MATERIALS E.All the women dropped out of school because of reading problems. Which inference is most logically based on the information given on the book cover?

C.The women’s lives have changed in positive ways. The title of the book and the smiling faces of the women suggest that the changes in their lives have been positive. D.All the women had parents who were non-readers. We are not given any information about the women’s parents. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT VISUAL MATERIALS E.All the women dropped out of school because of reading problems. We are not told that the women dropped out of school. Which inference is most logically based on the information given on the book cover?

MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT READING MATERIAL In everyday reading, we make logical leaps from the information given directly on the page to ideas that are not directly stated. To make such inferences, we use clues provided by the writer, and we also apply our own experience, logic, and common sense.

Read the following passage. Then choose the inference most firmly based on the information given. I once hired a roofer to put a new roof on my home. He checked the roof and then quoted me a price of $1,000. I agreed. He tore the old roof off, then came back down. I noticed a barely hidden smile on his face. “Sorry,” he said, “it’s gonna cost you $1,800. I didn’t know it needed so much work.” “No way,” I said, folding my arms. “Whatever you say,” the roofer said. He looked up at the sky and commented, “You know, it looks like rain.” I sighed, shook my head, and said, “With my luck, it will rain for three days. Finish the job.” B. The author’s old roof would have held up for another year or two. A. At first, the author did not want to spend the extra $800. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT READING MATERIAL

Read the following passage. Then choose the inference most firmly based on the information given. I once hired a roofer to put a new roof on my home. He checked the roof and then quoted me a price of $1,000. I agreed. He tore the old roof off, then came back down. I noticed a barely hidden smile on his face. “Sorry,” he said, “it’s gonna cost you $1,800. I didn’t know it needed so much work.” “No way,” I said, folding my arms. “Whatever you say,” the roofer said. He looked up at the sky and commented, “You know, it looks like rain.” I sighed, shook my head, and said, “With my luck, it will rain for three days. Finish the job.” B. The author’s old roof would have held up for another year or two. Nothing in the passage discusses the actual condition of the roof. A. At first, the author did not want to spend the extra $800. When the roofer first says the job will cost $1800, the author says, “No way.” Using our common sense, we can conclude that the author refuses because he didn’t want to spend the extra $800. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT READING MATERIAL

Read the following passage. Then choose the inference most firmly based on the information given. I once hired a roofer to put a new roof on my home. He checked the roof and then quoted me a price of $1,000. I agreed. He tore the old roof off, then came back down. I noticed a barely hidden smile on his face. “Sorry,” he said, “it’s gonna cost you $1,800. I didn’t know it needed so much work.” “No way,” I said, folding my arms. “Whatever you say,” the roofer said. He looked up at the sky and commented, “You know, it looks like rain.” I sighed, shook my head, and said, “With my luck, it will rain for three days. Finish the job.” D.The author believes that all roofers are con men. C. The roofer may have planned all along to raise the price after the old roof was torn off. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT READING MATERIAL E.The roofer had been recommended to the author.

Read the following passage. Then choose the inference most firmly based on the information given. I once hired a roofer to put a new roof on my home. He checked the roof and then quoted me a price of $1,000. I agreed. He tore the old roof off, then came back down. I noticed a barely hidden smile on his face. “Sorry,” he said, “it’s gonna cost you $1,800. I didn’t know it needed so much work.” “No way,” I said, folding my arms. “Whatever you say,” the roofer said. He looked up at the sky and commented, “You know, it looks like rain.” I sighed, shook my head, and said, “With my luck, it will rain for three days. Finish the job.” D.The author believes that all roofers are con men. The passage makes no mention of the author’s view of all roofers. We see only his reaction to this roofer. C. The roofer may have planned all along to raise the price after the old roof was torn off. In spite of the roofer’s claim that he “didn’t know,” the “barely hidden smile on his face” implies he may have been planning all along to charge $1800. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT READING MATERIAL E.The roofer had been recommended to the author. There is no mention of how the author came to hire the roofer.

Never lose sight of the available information. As much as possible, base your inferences on the facts. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT READING MATERIAL Guidelines for Making Inferences Guideline 1

Use your background knowledge, experience, and common sense to help you in making inferences. The more you know about a subject, the better your inferences are likely to be. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT READING MATERIAL Guidelines for Making Inferences Guideline 2

Consider the alternatives. Don’t simply accept the first inference that comes to mind. Instead, consider all of the facts of a case and all of the possible explanations. MAKING INFERENCES ABOUT READING MATERIAL Guidelines for Making Inferences Guideline 3

CHAPTER REVIEW In this chapter, you learned the following: Making inferences is a skill we practice all the time: for example, with cartoons, book covers, ads, other visual images, and everything that we read. Many ideas in reading are not stated directly, but must be inferred. To make good inferences, we must look closely at all the information presented and also draw upon our own experience and common sense. The next chapter—Chapter 9—will also involve making inferences, with the focus on finding main ideas that are implied rather than stated directly.