SAT Inferences (Easy) - English – Real Collegeboard Practice Questions with Answers and Explanations

Choice A is the best answer. The passage tells us that “tanks with duckweed (a floating plant) and algae released higher levels of methane than tanks with watermilfoil (an underwater plant) did.” This suggests that the presence of some kinds of underwater plants like watermilfoil may help prevent methane from escaping shallow lakes and ponds. Choice B is incorrect. The passage doesn’t mention deeper bodies of water at all, so there’s no basis for this inference. Choice C is incorrect. The passage doesn’t compare the likelihood of shallow lakes and ponds containing algae, watermilfoil, or duckweed. Choice D is incorrect. The study didn’t include any tanks with a mix of plants, so there’s no basis for this inference.

Choice A is the best answer. In one example, musicians made less money than expected by using the “pay as you wish” model. In the other example, a musician made more money than expected. This suggests that some musicians may have more success than others using the “pay as you wish” model. Choice B is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. In the examples provided, the individual musician was more successful with the “pay as you wish” model than the band was. Choice C is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The passage provides no instances in which musicians changed the suggested prices of their songs or albums, nor does it mention this as a possibility. Choice D is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never discusses the differences in popularity of different musicians, so there is no basis to make this inference.

Choice C is the best answer. The text tells us that because of the copyright, adapting Sherlock Holmes stories used to be expensive and difficult. This suggests that after the copyright ends, it will be less expensive and less difficult to adapt these stories. Choice A is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never suggests that the copyright ending will make Sherlock Holmes stories harder to find. Instead, it suggests that adaptations of these stories will be easier and less expensive to make. Choice B is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never discusses people’s interest in detective stories, so there is no basis to make this inference. Choice D is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never suggests that copyright fees from the past are returned after a copyright ends, so there is no basis to make this inference.

Choice B is the best answer. The text tells us that “people who got to touch the items were willing to pay much more money for them than people who weren’t allowed to touch” them. This suggests that being able to interact with a product in person may make it seem more valuable to a shopper. Choice A is incorrect. The text doesn’t discuss how much people spend each month, so there’s not much basis for this claim. Furthermore, since being able to touch a product tends to make people “willing to pay much more money” for it, we might predict that an online shopper would be willing to spend less on the same purchases as an in-person shopper. Choice C is incorrect. The text doesn’t discuss what retailers “should charge,” so there’s not much basis for this claim. Furthermore, the study in the text suggests that in-person stores may actually be able to charge more for a given product, since shoppers can touch it. Choice D is incorrect. The text doesn’t discuss products that are only available online, so there’s not much basis for this claim. Furthermore, products only available online would still have the problem of shoppers not being able to touch them, and the study suggests that this lowers the prices shoppers are willing to pay.

Choice B is the best answer. The passage tells us that Shang dynasty bronze artifacts contained "a rare form of lead," but that bronze artifacts after this time did not contain that lead. Although we don’t know where that specific type of bronze came from, we can conclude that that source was not used after the end of the Shang dynasty—otherwise, post-Shang dynasty pieces would also contain that rare form of lead. Choice A is incorrect. Despite these pieces containing "a rare form of lead," there is no direct claim in the passage that Shang dynasty bronze is itself more rare or valuable than bronze pieces from other periods. Therefore, there’s no basis for this inference. Choice C is incorrect. Although the passage mentions that the nature of the bronze in Chinese artifacts changed after the Shang dynasty, bronze was still used to create artifacts after this time. The passage in fact explicitly states "bronze artifacts from China dated after the Shang dynasty…," indicating that bronze was still used in China after the Shang dynasty. Choice D is incorrect. There’s no mention in the passage of methods used to analyze bronze artifacts, so there’s no basis for this inference.

Choice D is the best answer. The text says that off-off-Broadway theaters allowed artists to create more experimental shows, and then discusses how Fornés was free to direct her own “strange” plays however she wanted. This suggests that Fornés exemplifies the artistic freedom of off-off Broadway theaters. Choice A is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never discusses the costs of production, so we can’t logically make this claim. Choice B is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never discusses the complexity of staging plays either on Broadway or off-off Broadway, so there’s no basis to make this inference. Choice C is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never discusses fame at all, so there’s no basis to make this inference.

Choice B is the best answer. The text tells us that the black-furred wolves are more common in areas with regular outbreaks of distemper virus and are more likely to be immune to distemper than the gray-furred wolves. This suggests that the gene variant that results in black fur may be linked to immunity to the distemper virus. Choice A is incorrect. The text never compares North American gray wolves to other wolf species—in fact, it never discusses other wolf species at all, so there’s no basis for this inference. Choice C is incorrect. The life span of gray wolves is never mentioned in this text, so we have no basis for this inference. Choice D is incorrect. This is too extreme. The text says that "black-furred wolves are more likely to be immune to distemper than the gray-furred wolves," but that alone doesn’t mean that black-furred wolves will replace gray-furred wolves across North America.

Choice A is the best answer. The text says that handshakes create trust, and that the engineers’ goal is to “improve human- robot interactions.” This suggests that they want the robot’s handshake to feel real because they want humans to trust the robot. Choice B is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never discusses any other types of greetings, so there is no basis to make this inference. Choice C is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never discusses the appearance of this robot or any other robots, so there is no basis to make this inference. Choice D is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never discusses any uses for the robot other than interacting with humans, so there is no basis to make this inference.

Choice D is the best answer. The text says that N.pudica’s prey-catching pitchers are underground. It also says that the ridges where N. pudica lives don’t have many plants and animals on the surface. This suggests that N. pudica evolved underground pitchers in order to catch more prey. Choice A is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never mentions the possibility of other undiscovered carnivorous plant species in Indonesia, so there’s no basis to make this inference. Choice B is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text does say that the ridges where N. pudica lives are dry, but it also says that the purpose of carnivorous plant pitchers is to capture prey. It never suggests that these pitchers also absorb moisture, so there’s no basis to make this inference. Choice C is incorrect. This inference isn’t supported. The text never suggests that N. pudica’s underground pitcher can catch animals on the surface, so there’s no basis to make this inference.

Choice A is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s discussion of the two types of stick tools used by New Caledonian crows. The text indicates that the more effective type of tool has a hook that the crows make themselves, while the other type of tool is simply a stick without a hook that the crows find and don’t shape in any way. According to the text, Klump found that the crows keep hooked tools—but not the tools without hooks—in their grasp or in safe places when they aren’t using the tools. If the hooked tools are more effective than the tools without hooks are and the crows are more protective of the hooked tools than they are of the tools without hooks, it’s reasonable to conclude that the hooked tools are more valuable to the crows than the tools without hooks are. Choice B is incorrect because the text gives no indication of how easy it is for the crows to hold either the hooked tools or the tools without hooks. The text does state that crows hold the hooked tools and not the tools without hooks when the tools aren’t in use. However, the text also indicates that the hooked tools require work from the crows to make and are more useful for helping the crows catch prey than the tools without hooks are. This context suggests that the crows hold the hooked tools because they’re more valuable to the crows than the tools without hooks are, not because the hooked tools are easier to hold. Choice C is incorrect because the text makes no mention of the crows sharing tools. Additionally, the text indicates that when the crows aren’t using the hooked tools, they either grasp the tools or store them safely, which suggests that the crows try to maintain possession of the hooked tools, not that crows prefer to share those tools. Choice D is incorrect because the text says nothing about the crows using their claws to remove prey from holes, so there’s no evidence that the crows perceive the stick tools to be less effective than their claws are.

Choice B is the best answer. The passage tells us that attendees at Johnson’s get-togethers "would read and discuss one another’s work." This suggests that the gatherings could provide an opportunity for Johnson to get feedback on her plays. Notice how the text foreshadows this conclusion by the mention of Johnson learning "what other people thought of her plays." Choice A is incorrect. The passage doesn’t mention theater companies attending the get-togethers, so there is no basis for this inference. Choice C is incorrect. The passage doesn’t mention learning about plays from other cities, so there is no basis for this inference. Choice D is incorrect. The passage doesn’t mention Johnson using the get-togethers as inspiration for future plays, so there is no basis for this inference.

Choice C is the best answer. The text tells us that “actors tended to highly exaggerate their actions and expressions” in films produced from 1896 to 1920. This suggests that the natural style of acting in Guy-Blaché’s films was very unusual for the time. Choice A is incorrect. The text never discusses any other directors copying the style of acting found in Guy-Blaché’s films, and in fact suggests the opposite—that it was unusual for directors to suggest this style of acting at the time. Choice B is incorrect. The text never discusses actors’ familiarity with the style of acting found in Guy-Blaché’s films, so there isn’t much basis for this inference. But since the text tells us that other films of the period used a highly exaggerated form of acting, we might predict that the natural style in Guy-Blachés films would have been unfamiliar to these actors. Choice D is incorrect. The text never discusses film acting today, so there’s no basis for this inference.

Choice B is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s discussion of Nikki Grimes’s poetry collection One Last Word. The text explains that Grimes used a writing method called the golden shovel to create the poems in her book. According to the text, the method involves basing a new poem on a line from an existing poem. The text then mentions Langston Hughes and Georgia Douglas Johnson as examples of important Black poets whose lines of poetry form the basis of Grimes’s poems. The text goes on to say that this writing method is difficult and that the resulting poems can be awkward, but reviewers have positively reviewed Grimes’s book. If the reviewers of One Last Word specifically note that the work is a “beautiful and powerful tribute to the poets who inspired it,” then they must have appreciated how Grimes used the golden shovel method to pay tribute to other poets. This suggests that Grimes was successful in using the golden shovel method to achieve her goal of honoring Black poets in her book. Choice A is incorrect because the reaction suggests that most reviewers did understand Grimes’s goal for her book. According to the text, the reviewers noted that the poems in her book were a “beautiful and powerful tribute to the poets who inspired it.” Earlier, the text claims that Grimes intended the poems “to honor important Black poets of the past,” so in their praise of her book, the reviewers clearly indicated that they understood Grimes’s goal. Choice C is incorrect. Although it’s likely that Grimes sought to honor Hughes and Johnson in her book of poetry because they’re among her favorite poets, this fact isn’t suggested by the reviewers’ positive reaction to her book. Instead, the reaction suggests that Grimes was successful in her use of the golden shovel method. Choice D is incorrect because the text doesn’t discuss whether other writers were inspired by Grimes to use the golden shovel method in their poetry. The text mentions the poets Hughes and Assessment SAT Test Reading and Writing Domain Information and Ideas Skill Inferences Difficulty Johnson as examples of poets honored in Grimes’s book and describes reviewers’ positive reception of her book, but it doesn’t detail Grimes’s impact on other writers.

Choice C is the best answer. The passage tells us that participants who had seen a less detailed ad for a product beforehand had a higher opinion of the store than those who had seen a more detailed ad. This suggests that reactions to an ad may be affected by the amount of detail viewed in previous ads. Choice A is incorrect. The passage doesn’t mention the number of people who viewed the ad, so there’s no basis for this inference. Choice B is incorrect. The passage doesn’t mention the length of time viewing previous ads, so there’s no basis for this inference. Choice D is incorrect. The passage doesn’t mention the time of day that the ad is viewed, so there’s no basis for this inference.