🎓SAT English
READING 3
SAT Inferences for ESL Students
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SAT Inferences are questions that give a series of details and then ask which choice would complete the passage.
Why Learn Inferences?
For English language learners, understanding inferences gains:
- Reading comprehension: To understand meaning we need to know what the write or speaker is saying.
- Social skills: In conversation, people connect by understanding the meaning of what is said.
- Critical thinking: To infer, and to understanding what is being inferred, is a language and thinking skill.
- Build vocabulary: Using words to express a meaning beyond the simple choice allows a learner to increase thir vocabulary.
There are about 2 inferences questions in the SAT Exam
Inferences Example
To infer is to suggest something from what you say, but it might not be said in the actual words. So we are looking for a meaning that is in the passage but not in the words.
Passage: Maria’s clothes are wet and she is holding a wet umbrella. Dark, grey clouds are covering the sky and you can hear thunder.
Inferences (unwritten): It is raining outside.
Be a Detective
The “Detective Rule”:
- you can see smoke,
- you can infer there is a fire.
- You cannot infer that someone dropped a match,
- you cannot infer that the building is going to burn down.
- A detective identifies what can be inferred.
Exercise 1 Inferences Questions for ESL Learners
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Q1 When Olivia deleted her dance videos and started watching cooking clips, her social media app immediately stopped showing music trends. Instead, her feed became filled with baking tutorials and restaurant reviews.
Based on the text, what can be most reasonably inferred about the app’s algorithm?
- a) It prefers cooking videos over dance videos.
- b) It changes content based on recent user viewing habits.
- c) It is difficult for users to reset their preferences.
- d) It only shows videos that are popular worldwide.
Q2 A recent study compared professional video gamers with traditional athletes. The researchers found that while traditional athletes burned more physical calories, the gamers made up to four times more split-second decisions per minute during competition.
The text most strongly suggests that professional gaming ________
- a) requires a high level of mental processing and focus.
- b) is more difficult than playing traditional sports.
- c) causes players to lose interest in physical exercise.
- d) will soon replace traditional sports in popularity.
Q3 A famous sports shoe brand released a limited-edition shoe online at 9:00 AM. By 9:02 AM, the brand’s website crashed due to high traffic, and all pairs were completely sold out before the site could be repaired.
Which choice can be reasonably concluded from the text?
- a) The brand did not make enough shoes.
- b) The website will remain offline for several days.
- c) There was a massive demand for the limited-edition shoe.
- d) Online shopping is safer than buying shoes in a store.
SAT Inferences Example
Every morning, thousands of people in Tokyo ride their bicycles to work. The city has built hundreds of kilometres of safe cycling paths over the past ten years. The local government says it wants to reduce traffic and pollution in the city centre.
Which choice best describes what can be inferred from the passage?
- a) Most Tokyo residents own a car.
- b) The government wants more people to drive to work.
- c) Building cycling paths is part of a plan to improve the city environment.
- d) Cycling is only popular in Tokyo, not in other Japanese cities.
How to Answer SAT Inferences
Choose the relevant sentence
- The sentence: “The local government says it wants to reduce traffic and pollution in the city centre.”
- The answer: This sentence connects with option C.
- Choices A, B, and D have no sentence in the passage you can underline to prove them, so they are wrong.
In English there is a saying of understanding the overall meaning rather than just the words, it is said someone can “read between the lines”. This is to understand ‘inferences’.
Exercise 2 SAT Inferences Questions
Which choice most logically completes the text?
SAT questions
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