2. INFERENCE An inference is an educated guess. It is a conclusion that is supported by clues or evidence.

3. WHEN DO WE USE INFERENCES? We make inferences about people all the time. I n the novel Freak the Mighty, in the chapter titled “Damsel of Distress,” we assumed that Loretta Lee was a mean person.

4. How do we make inferences? Sometimes we make inferences based on background knowledge or “schema.” Sometimes we make inferences based on CLUES that the writer provides. I provided the clues for “Who Am I?”

5. What OBJECT do the lines from the poem describe? A tourist came in from Orbitville, parked in the air, and said: The creatures of this star are made of metal and glass. Through the transparent parts You can see their guts.

6. The creatures of this star are made of metal and glass. Wide Screen TV? A washing machine?

7. MAKE A GUESS Their feet are round and roll on diagrams of long measuring tapes, dark With white lines.

8. What are the eyes? They have four eyes. The two in the back are red. Sometimes you can see a five-eyed one, with a red eye turning on the top of his head.

9. He must be special. He must be special---- The others respect him and go slow when he passes, winding among them from behind.

10. What are the soft shapes? They all hiss as they glide, like inches, down the marked tapes. Those soft shapes, shadowy inside the hard bodies----are they their guts or their brains?

11. Southbound on the Freeway by May Swenson