Verbal Lecture-14

Reading Comprehension:

Inference questions:

These questions are mostly tested in exams. Usually 1 in every 4 question is an inference question. You have learned about inference question type in Critical reasoning or Logical reasoning lecture. In RC the same thing is applied. RC inference questions test your ability to derive or conclude from the information that is presented in the passage. In other words, your skill to understand the author intended meaning in some parts of the passage where the meaning is only suggested but stated explicitly. As you’ve learn that inference statement is something that is inferred, so this statement is a MUST be true statement. Inference is the logical extension of the information presented in the passage. For instance,

Mr A was the most senior football player in 1990s. He hit maximum number of goals in 1990 football cup.

Incorrect inference statements:

Senior football players hit maximum number of goals.

Mr A hit maximum number of goals in 1990 football cup, because he was the senior most football player.

Mr A was the most prominent football player in 1990.

Correct inference statements:

The senior most football player has hit maximum number of goals in 1990 cup.

Mr A has been the most goal hitter at his time.

Any statement, which is not MUST be true, is not an inference statement. I’m sure that you have now rewind inference statement again. So let’s learn it in detail here while discussing RC passages. Till that point, you have learned that inference is a logical deduction from the information of the passage.

Types of inference:

1. Statement showing intended meaning of the author

2. Statement derived from the given information

The above example statements in correct inference statements are second type of inference. In second type, which is frequently tested, the inference can be derived by deductive reasoning or by inductive reasoning. i.e. an inference can be a simple derived statement, a specific statement derived from general one or a general statement derived from a specific one.

First type inference:

For instance, in first type of intended meaning inference, the questions may be asked as follows:

The economic condition has getting worse since the terrorism flourished in 2001. This has resulted in less utilization of resources in development projects. We name it as “the devil era” because it has abandoned lots of employments and thus made millions of people jobless and criminal activities also increased during this era.

What does the author imply while using phrase “the devil era”?

Clearly, the phrase “the devil era” is used only figuratively. The implied meaning of this word is not exact meaning of “the devil era”, rather it is to stress that this era has remarkable very bad in terms of proper utilization of resources. The author is trying to say that this era has made millions of people jobless and thus increased crimes in the world. So “the devil era” implies the poor economy era. Pay careful attention about the context in which this phrase has used.

Second type inference:

Now, let’s discuss the second type of inference question. It deals with logical deduction from the information in the passage. For instance, the question may be asked as follows:

Simple derived statement:

Whenever Walmart opens a super store in a particular city, the businesses located within a 10 mile radius that are able to adapt their offerings survive.

What can be inferred from this information?

According to the information, it is given that when Walmart opens in a location, then other businesses that adapt the condition accordingly can survive. This logically extend to conclude that those businesses that do not adapt the changing demands and condition of that location are usually unable to survive. i.e

Businesses that are located in the vicinity of a Walmart and are unable to adapt their offerings usually do not last long.

Notice that such question tests your self-analysis skill, that answer the question: How much effective brainstorming can you make?

The most common type of inference question is the second type of inference question in which you need to deduce the information from given information is some part of the passage.

Deductive inference:

Manytimes, an inference question is asked to deduce a specific information from a general rule, principle or information. For instance:

Anole lizard species that occur together (sympatrically) on certain Caribbean islands occupy different habitats: some live only in the grass, some only on tree trunks, and some only on twigs. These species also differ morphologically: grass dwellers are slender with long tails, free dwellers are stocky with long legs, twig dwellers are slender but stubby-legged. What is striking about these lizards is not that coexisting species differ in morphology and habitat use (such differences are common among closely related sympatric species), but that the same three types of habitat specialists occur on each of four islands: Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica. Moreover, the Puerto Rican twig species closely resembles the twig species of Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica in morphology, habitat use, and behavior. Likewise, the specialists for other habitats are similar across the islands.

It can be deduced from the statement that:

Incorrect inference:

Tree-dwellers across the island share similar morphology – stocky bodies and long legs.

Because tree-dwellers in four islands share morphology does not imply tree-dwellers across the islands share morphology. As there may be other islands as well. And as we’ve learned that inference statement MUST be true, so it is a choice which many students enticed to choose.

Correct inference:

Cuban tree-dwelling and Jamaican tree-dwelling anole lizards share a morphology characterized by stocky bodies and long legs.

That is a specific inference and a MUST be true inference statement that talks about two of the four specific islands mentioned in the passage.

Inductive inference:

Sometimes, an inference question is asked to induce a general rule, principle or information from specific information. For instance:

Ever since President Bush took office, out of the five key metrics, three metrics that are economic in nature and are a proxy for the well-being of an average American are down. Regardless of the data for the remaining two metrics that are essentially non-economic in nature, it is clear that the average American is in a state of greater financial distress than he was when President Bush took office.

What can be inferred from the information above?

Self-analysis: Three out of 5 metrics are economic metric, which show downward trend. While from this information, the author made conclusion that, average American is in state of greater financial stress. But what about other two non-economic metrics? So that is the point. Even the other two metrics will show an upward trend, the financial stress cannot be avoided.

So we can infer that:

The non-economic metrics cannot outweigh the worse impact of economic metrics with regard to financial situation of average Americans.

Similarly,

Over the past 20,000 years, the average volume of the human male brain has decreased from 1,500 cubic centimeters to 1,350 cc, losing a chunk the size of a tennis ball. The female brain has shrunk by about the same proportion. It is expected that over the next 20,000 years, it will start to approach the size of that found in Homo erectus, a relative that lived half a million years ago and had a brain volume of only 1,100 cc. Yet, the overall intellect of humans has remained unchanged during this period.

What can be properly inferred from the information above?

Self-Analysis: It is extracted from the information that human brain volume (i.e size) has reduced over past 20,000 years, while the intellect of humans has remained unchanged. So we can infer that:

Reduction in brain volume not necessarily result a reduction in human intellect.

Reduction in brain volume not necessarily affect human intellect.

Inference questions are considered as the hardest question in RC section. So let’s learn steps to approach correct answer choice.

Steps to approach correct inference answer:

Following are the steps you should follow in order to find the correct answer choice:

Step 1: Understand the passage up to 75% (passage flow, organization, scope and some important information).

Step 2: Read the question statement very carefully.

Step 3: Make a self-analysis of possible inference. As multiply inference statements can be drawn from the given information, so don’t get confuse if you have more than one inference. Self-analysis is actually the hardest thing in such questions. So we’ll learn this after learning the steps to approach correct answer.

Step 4: Read answer choice one-by-one and do POE where possible. As I said earlier, you should have good reason of eliminating a choice as well as good reason of selecting the correct answer choice. And remember the former reason (i.e reason for eliminating a choice) is more important than reason for selecting a choice, because it helps in POE (Process of elimination).

Following these steps, you will have less chance to select an incorrect answer.

How to make self-analysis here?

Firstly, you should carefully understand the question that what this question is asking for. It is very essential to understand about what aspect or thing the question want you to infer from the information.

Secondly, go to that specific part of the passage, where that information is written in particular location in the passage. Since you need to find the relevant information from the passage, you should know where to look for that. For that purpose, take help from your written notes and some brain memory. That is why understanding the passage well and making paragraph summaries (i.e notes) are the key to get succeeded in such questions.

Thirdly, after you get relevant information to deduce inference, you must start thinking critically. You have learned how to draw inference from available information, so use similar style of reasoning and draw your own version of inference. Although there may be more than one possible inference statements can be drawn, but you should only draw one inference. Even if your inference statement do not match with the correct inference choice, at least you would have better understanding about relevant information and hence can confidently find proof of incorrect inference as well as proof of correct inference statement from the available choices. Because your own version of inference will provide you the framework through which you can eliminate incorrect choices easily.

Let’s discuss the same passage as discussed in main idea question:

Only few experiments directly testing the effects of cooking on net energy gained have been published. This small number is especially noteworthy given the abiding interest in calories and the impact of cooking on vitamin concentration and on the physical properties of food such as tenderness. However, thanks to the work of Rachel Carmody, we now have a series of experiments that provide a solid base of evidence proving contrary to popular belief that cooking has no net impact on calorie intake.

Rachel Carmody led a study in which mice were given regular mouse pellets for six days at a time, interrupted by four days of eating sweet potatoes or beef – half the time the sweet potato or meat was presented raw, and half the time cooked; half the time it was also pounded and half the time unpounded. For both meat and sweet potato, Rachel found that the mice gained more weight when the food was cooked than when it was raw. Pounding had very little effect.

Rachel hypothesized that in cooked beef, the muscle proteins, like the sugars in cooked starch, have opened up and allowed digestive enzymes to attack their amino acid chains. Cooking also does this for collagen, a protein that makes meat difficult to chew because it forms the connective tissue wrapped around muscle fibers. Another observation was that the mice had a spontaneous preference for eating cooked meat over raw meat, and their choice made sense, given that they fared better on it.

Further investigation along these lines revealed profound findings that the same food when cooked imparts 25% more calories than when eaten raw. Moreover, the calories obtained from raw foods are more likely to be converted to muscle mass versus fat. Therefore, those wanting to gain weight should eat highly processed and well-cooked meals. Conversely, those wanting to lose weight should do the opposite.

Step 1: Understand the passage clearly, and make some appropriate notes.

Passage Summary:

P1: Introduces an issue that need to solved via experiment.

P2: Explain the experiment and presents the results.

P3: Continue to presents results and their explanation.

P4: Concludes from those findings/results.

Step 2: Read the question statement very carefully.

Question: It can be inferred that the experiment mentioned in the passage supports which of the following statements about the mice used in the experiment? (Indicate all that apply)

Step 3: Make self-analysis by thinking critically.

Before, even, looking at the answer choices, first make self-analysis as follows:

Firstly, understand the question statement and see what is asked. The question asks to infer a statement about mice that the experiment on mice supports.

Secondly, let’s find out from our notes where the experiment was mentioned.

Passage Summary:

P1: Introduces an issue that need to solved via experiment.

P2: Explain the experiment and presents the results.

P3: Continue to presents results and their explanation.

P4: Concludes from those findings/results.

The experiment was mentioned in second paragraph. So let’s go the the passage and read that experiment again specifically to infer a statement, while keeping in mind that we have to infer something about the mice.

This paragraph talks about the experiment and the result of Mr RC study. The result of the study was “the mice gained more weight when the food was cooked than when it was raw.” So based on this information and the information that mice was fed when “half the time the sweet potato or meat was presented raw, and half the time cooked”, we can infer that “Mice gained more weight when they ate cooked meat, than when they ate raw meat.” As the experiment was made using meat, while the result of study mentioned food, so meat MUST replace the food. Similarly, another inference is that “Mice gained more weight when they ate cooked sweet potato, than when they ate raw sweet potato.”. Also, another inference can be drawn that “Mice did not gain more weight when they ate pounded meat, than when they ate unpounded meat.” As pounded meat didn’t effect the weight gain as per the result of the study. However, remember that you must only make one inference version, rather than many of these. I’ve made many of inferences here so that you will know that many inferences are possible. Also each of you may draw difference inferences, so you may come across the similar version with any of these inferences.

This inference framework will help us to eliminate incorrect choices and select correct choice. So let’s go the the choices and begin analyzing from choice I.

I. The mice liked cooked sweet potatoes when pounded over the unpounded cooked meat.

II. The mice gained more weight when they ate cooked pounded meat than when they ate raw pounded meat.

III. The mice gained about the same amount of weight whether they ate pounded raw meat or unpounded raw meat.

IV. The overall water content as a percent of weight of the mice remained constant regardless the mice ate cooked food or raw food.

V. Regardless of whether fed pounded or unpounded food, the mice found cooked sweet potato easier to swallow than cooked meat.

Choice I: The mice liking is not at the point of experiment, and also preference of mice for sweet potatoes over sweet has not discussed anywhere in this experiment. There’s no basis for this comparison from the passage. So this choice is incorrect.

Choice II: This choice is quite same as our version of inference regarding pounded food. The experiment clearly supports this result that cooked pounded food and raw pounded food has same result as cooked unpounded food and raw unpounded food; thus pounded food has nothing to do with the weight gain. Hence this choice is correct inference statement.

Choice III: Again this choice assimilate the inference as in choice II, i.e pounded food and unpounded food has nothing to do with weight gain. So this choice is also correct inference statement.

We already got the two required answer choices with proof of correctness, yet we should discuss other choices as well but will quick eye glance.

Choice IV: The water content has never discussed through the passage and this is not the point of the experiment. So this is incorrect inference choice.

Choice V: The words “easier to swallow” are also unrelated to weight gain or loss and is out of scope of the passage. Thus this choice is also incorrect inference statement.

So you have noticed that how we have come up with correct inference statement choices with our self-analysis version of inference statement.

Characteristics of incorrect answer choices:

There are following characteristics of incorrect inference choices:

Out of Scope:

It goes beyond the scope of the passage. Note that since RC passage includes lot of information, so out of scope choices do include same wording as in the passage, but it talks about other things not covered in the passage. In other words, out of scope choices include some information in the passage, but uses these information in a manner not discussed in the passage. So it is an irrelevant to the passage

Out of context:

This is most important type. In this choice, the test maker lists information and facts that are mentioned in the passage and is relevant to the context of the passage but not relevant to the question. That’s why I recommend that read the question statement carefully in first step. This choice usually seems very attractive.

Give information against correct inference:

This choice is also sometime bit tricky because it includes all relevant things except it changes words such as: change like to dislike, etc.