Deck 6: The Role of Inferences in Comprehension and Critical Reading

Question 1

Choose the appropriate letter to indicate the conclusion that can be drawn from each passage. In his book Luxury Fever , author Robert H.Frank asks us to imagine two parallel universes, two societies that are isolated from another but alike in all respects except for one: everyone in Society A lives in a 4,000-square-foot house, and everyone in Society B lives in a 3,000-square-foot house.He also asks us to imagine that the people who live in Society B used the resources they saved by building smaller houses to improve their overall living conditions by funding the construction of high-speed public transportation.Therefore, when the residents of Society B leave their 3,000-square-foot houses to go to work, they face a hassle-free, fifteen-minute commute.Meanwhile, the residents of Society A, who poured all of their resources into an extra 1,000 square feet of living space, face a grueling, one-hour long automobile commute through heavy traffic, a stressful activity that has been shown to cause significant mental and physical damage.What Frank wants to know is this: In which society would you choose to live?
(Source of information: Robert H.Frank, "How Not To Buy Happiness," Daedalus , Vol.133, Issue 2.)
From this passage, a reader might logically draw which conclusion?

A) Robert Frank is probably a very wealthy man.
B) Robert Frank would probably agree that only families with four or more members need 4,000-square-foot homes.
C) Robert Frank is likely to agree that people who pursue happiness by spending every penny on personal luxuries are likely to be disappointed in the long run.
D) Robert Frank would be likely to agree with the saying "If you've got it, flaunt it."

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Choose the appropriate letter to identify the main idea implied by the paragraph. A recent survey revealed that 63 percent of Americans took a vitamin, mineral, or herbal supplement over a three-month period.Another survey showed that people decided to take these products based on information they got from their friends or family members, from magazines and advertisements, or from the products' labels themselves.These people rarely consulted their doctor.Instead, they relied on the accuracy of product labels to help them make purchasing decisions.Labels, however, can be deceptive.They do not always accurately reflect the ingredients in a bottle's contents.Furthermore, the Food and Drug Administration does not require scientific studies to prove the safety or effectiveness of supplements.This means that the medical community cannot verify that the supplements actually work.Even worse, physicians are treating more and more patients who experience adverse reactions from taking these products.St.John's wort, an herbal anti-depressant, can cause nerve damage.Ginseng, which is supposed to increase energy, can cause dangerous reductions in the blood sugar levels of diabetics.Ephedra, a popular diet aid, may cause strokes and heart attacks.Strong doses of chaparral, a therapeutic tea, can prove toxic and damage the liver.
Implied Main Idea

A) Many people are taking vitamin supplements that can be deadly, and the number of deaths from taking non-prescription supplements is on the rise.
B) Vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplements are purposely mislabeled to disguise the negative side effects produced by ingesting the supplements.
C) Americans are taking vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplements without enough knowledge about potential side effects.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Choose the appropriate letter to identify the main idea implied by the paragraph. The first study of very-low-birth-weight children (those who weigh less than three pounds four ounces at birth) was completed in 2001.A group of researchers led by Dr.Maureen Hack followed for two decades 242 very-low-birth-weight babies born in Cleveland between 1977 and 1979.When the subjects reached age twenty, the researchers compared them to a control group of 233 normal-birth-weight children born in the same city during the same time frame.As the researchers had predicted, the low-birth-weight group was much more likely than the control group to suffer from chronic medical ailments.These conditions included cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness, and lung disease, many of them arising from complications at birth.
Implied Main Idea

A) One study suggests that premature babies born with a very low birth weight do have more psychological problems later in life than babies born at a normal weight.
B) Making any claims about the effects of premature birth based on one study of 242 babies is probably not sound science.
C) A recent study of very-low-birth-weight babies suggests that as adults, premature babies are likely to suffer from serious illnesses.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Choose the appropriate letter to indicate the conclusion that can be drawn from each passage. In July of 2010, Courtney Purvin was stunned by a suggestion on her Facebook page.The site was suggesting that she get back in touch with an old family friend.What shocked Ms.Purvin was the total impossibility of following up on this idea.The friend mentioned had died almost three months before. When Facebook first made its debut, such depressing surprises rarely occurred.Users were in their teens and twenties.Death was an infrequent visitor.But when the site was opened up to people of all ages, it became all too possible that someone who signed up could pass away.Meanwhile Facebook's software would keep churning out suggestions that former friends might like to get in touch with the deceased.As Meredith Chin, a Facebook spokeswoman put it, the site is huge "and with people passing away every day, we're never going to be perfect at catching it [the suggestion about connecting with someone deceased]." This is a problem that is not likely to go away anytime soon since people over the age of 65 are signing up for Facebook at a faster rate than any other age group.
(Source: Jenna Wortham."As More Facebook Users Die, Ghosts Reach Out to Reconnect, The New York Times , July 18, 2010, p.1)
From this passage, a reader might logically draw which conclusion?

A) People who get invitations to hook up with people who have died should probably quit Facebook.
B) People getting invitations to contact friends who have died feel their grief more intensely than those mourners who are not on Facebook.
C) The number of Facebook users getting suggestions about connecting with friends who have died is likely to increase.
D) Facebook administrators are aware that users of the site are tired of having their social life managed by a third party.

Question 5

Choose the appropriate letter to identify the main idea implied by the paragraph. Many surnames of European origin are derived from an ancestor's first name.For example, Richardson means "son of Richard" and Pavlov means "son of Paul." Wilkins means "little William" and Perkins means "little Peter." Places and geographic locations are another source of surnames.Churchill, Dunlop ("muddy hill"), and Sidney, for instance, all reflect places or descriptions of places where ancestors originated.Other surnames come from occupations.Baker, Carpenter, and Knight are all derived from ancestors' professions or status.Still other surnames come from nicknames, physical descriptions, or character traits.Small, Fox, and Stern, for example, are derived from specific characteristics attributed to individuals.Another example is the name Kennedy, which is Gaelic for "ugly head."
Implied Main Idea

A) Many last names are derived from geographic locations.
B) Many European surnames are derived from names, places, occupations, and personal characteristics.
C) There was a time when communities were so small that people were known simply by their parentage, as in "son of Paul" or "little William."

Question 6

Choose the appropriate letter to indicate the conclusion that can be drawn from each passage. Up until the 1960s, elementary school teachers believed that beginning reading instruction should include intensive focus on phonics; therefore, children were taught generalizations that would help them know how to sound out words.For example, they memorized rules like "When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking" in order to help them know how to say words like fear and boat, in which the first vowel is spoken and the second is not.However, in 1963, Dr.Theodore Clymer conducted a study of the methods used by elementary teachers to teach phonics.He looked at four popular reading programs for children and chose 45 commonly taught phonics generalizations.Then, he compared these generalizations to actual words appearing in the stories the children read as part of the program.Dr.Clymer found that only 18 of the generalizations were accurate more than 75 percent of the time.Of the 30 vowel generalizations he tested, only half of them worked at least 60 percent of the time.His study pointed out that there were many exceptions to the so-called rules; for example, bear and earn are just two of many words that do not conform to the rule about the pronunciation of two vowels.Therefore, Dr.Clymer concluded that "many of the generalizations that are commonly taught are of limited value." Following this study, which shattered several common myths about early reading education, Dr.Clymer spent the remainder of his career submitting the established theories of educators to rigorous scientific testing and then finding ways to improve teaching methods.
(Source of information: Lia Miller, "Theodore Clymer, 77, Expert on Early Reading Education, Dies," The New York Times , August 15, 2004, www.nytimes.com.)
From this passage, a reader might logically draw which conclusion?

A) Theodore Clymer probably supported teaching even those generalizations that worked less than 60 percent of the time.
B) Theodore Clymer would have challenged the notion that common sense is the only thing a teacher needs to be effective in the classroom.
C) Dr.Clymer was thoroughly disgusted by the incompetent teaching methods once popular in reading classrooms.
D) Dr.Clymer was also an excellent teacher.

Question 7

Choose the appropriate letter to indicate the conclusion that can be drawn from each passage. Most Americans think that sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are much safer than sports cars.And it's true that a 5,000-pound SUV like the Chevrolet TrailBlazer is better at what the automotive industry calls "passive safety"; in other words, in a head-on collision with a car, a vehicle like a Ford Explorer is not going to be the one that's crushed.However, many cars are much better than SUVs at what the automotive industry calls "active safety." Midsize cars like the Toyota Camry and subcompact cars like the Volkswagen Jetta are more nimble, so their drivers have the ability to maneuver them to avoid crashes with the Explorers and the TrailBlazers.Being nimble and maneuverable, therefore, is often better than being big.Take, for example, emergency-stopping tests performed on both the TrailBlazer and the two-seater Porsche Boxster convertible.At 60 miles per hour, bringing the TrailBlazer to a sudden stop took about 150 feet and was not accomplished easily, for 5,000 pounds of rubber and steel does not stop that fast without a lot of screeching and bucking.The Boxster, however, can come to a complete stop in about 124 feet, which is a difference of about two car lengths.Obviously, two car lengths can, in many situations, mean the difference between life and death.Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that the accident fatality rate for drivers of even some subcompact cars is half that for drivers of SUVs like the Ford Explorer, and drivers of the midsize imports, cars like the Camry and the Honda Accord, have the lowest accident fatality rates of all.
(Source of information: Malcolm Gladwell, "Big and Bad," The New Yorker , January 12, 2004, pp.28-33.)
From this passage, a reader might logically draw which conclusion?

A) SUVs are safer than cars.
B) A car buyer whose main concern is safety on the road would be more likely to buy a midsize car than an SUV
C) Cars and SUVs are about the same when it comes to safety.
D) Most people buy SUVs as status symbols and don't care about safety.

Question 8

Choose the appropriate letter to identify the main idea implied by the paragraph. In the 1804 duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, historians have generally sided with Hamilton and painted Burr as the villain.They have, for example, taken Hamilton's word for it that he felt "no ill-will" toward Burr.They have also taken on faith claims that Hamilton never intended to fire his gun.Yet all accounts of the years-long political feud show that Hamilton insulted Burr both personally and politically.The former is what's important because nineteenth-century duels were not supposed to be fought for political reasons; they were supposedto be a last resort response to personal rather than professional insults.It's important to note, too, that right before the duel began, Hamilton asked for a brief delay.When the delay was granted, Hamilton pulled out his glasses and squinted into the sun's glare, lifted his pistol, and took aim at a distant target.This is hardly the behavior of a man intent on holding his fire.When the signal was given, two shots rang out, and Burr, despite newspaper accounts to the contrary, seemed deeply disturbed that his bullet had found its mark.As he was being led away by his companions, Burr tried to turn back, saying "I must go and speak to him," but his companions hurried him along.Although this does not seem the behavior of a man delighted by his enemy's death, this is still the portrait conveyed by newspaper accounts at the time.It is also the portrait that has passed into history.
(Source of information: Joseph Ellis, Founding Brothers.New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 2001, pp.22-28.)
Implied Main Idea

A) Although historians have portrayed Aaron Burr as the guilty party in his duel with Alexander Hamilton, it is Hamilton who was really the villain of the affair.
B) Drawing on newspaper accounts of the time, historians are likely to be led astray because newspapers, then and now, are more interested in profits than in accuracy.
C) Although historians have generally suggested that Aaron Burr played the villain's role in his duel with Alexander Hamilton, the facts do not seem to support this interpretation of the event.

Question 9

Choose the appropriate letter to identify the main idea implied by the paragraph. For decades, Americans have not questioned the belief that low self-esteem is at the root of our personal and social ills.Yet, how does this belief square with the failure of the "California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility"? Formed in 1986 to reduce crime and substance abuse by boosting Californians' feelings of self-worth, the task force has had no such effect on substance abuse levels.Relevant, too, is the research done by Roy Baumeister of Case Western University? Baumeister found that people with high self-esteem are the most likely to inflict electric shocks or ear-piercing blasts of noise upon innocent subjects.Consider as well the fact that researcher Nicholas Emler of the London School of Economics tested the self-esteem of violent men and found no evidence that they secretly disliked themselves.Instead, Emler concluded, "These men are ...violent because they don't feel bad enough about themselves." According to David Reynolds, a psychotherapist who practices Morita, a Japanese treatment based on the idea that self-awareness causes suffering, "The most miserable people I know have been self-focused." In other words, their high levels of self-esteem tended to make them miserable.It's no surprise, then, that programs for abusive men such as Emerge, run by psychologist David Adams in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have successfully rehabilitated wife batterers by leading them to honestly evaluate and criticize their behaviors rather than encouraging them to feel better about themselves
Implied Main Idea

A) It now appears that increasing self-esteem may not be a very effective way of curing either personal or social ills.
B) In the end, it's probably better for people to have low self-esteem, because high self-esteem seems to be linked to violent behavior.
C) The failure of the "California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility" is proof enough that self-esteem cannot be manufactured by a committee.