INFERENCE APPLIED TO READING COMPREHENSION
The TOEFL hardly ever asks questions about what is stated. The questions
require the candidate to say what is implied (to infer meaning from what is
stated). Read each sentence; then circle the one answer choice that is a
logical inference based upon that sentence.
1. Blood cholesterol used to be thought of as a problem for adults.
A. Blood cholesterol is no longer a problem for adults.
B. Only children have a problem with blood cholesterol.
C. Blood cholesterol affects both adults and children
2. When apple growers talk about new varieties of apples, they don’t mean
something developed last month, last year, or even in the last decade.
A. Apple growers haven’t developed any new varieties in recent decades.
B. Some varieties of apples can be developed in a short time, but others take a long
time.
C. New varieties of apples take many years to develop.
3. In all cultures, gestures are used as a form of communication, but the
same gestures may have very different meanings in different cultures.
A No two cultures use the same gestures.
B. One gesture will never have the same meaning in two cultures.
C. A person from one culture may misunderstand the gestures used by a person from
another culture.
4. Although sheepherding is an older and more beloved occupation,
shepherds never caught the attention of American filmmakers the way
cowboys did.
A. There have been more American films about cowboys than about shepherds.
B. Films about shepherds were popular before films about cowboys.
C. Cowboys are generally younger than shepherds.
5. As an architect, Thomas Jefferson preferred the Roman style, as seen in
the buildings of the University of Virginia, to the English style favored by
Charles Bullfinch.
A. The architecture of the University of Virginia was influenced by the Roman style.
B. Bullfinch was an English architect.
C. Jefferson preferred to build in the English style of architecture
6. Even spiders that do not build webs from silk use it for a variety of
purposes, such as constructing egg sacs and nursery tents.
A. All spiders build webs.
B. Spiders that build webs don’t build egg sacs or nursery tents.
C. Silk is used by all spiders.
7. There is more quartz in the world than any one kind of feldspar, but the
feldspars as a group are five times more common than quartz.
A. One type of quartz is five times more plentiful than feldspar.
B. Quartz is less common than the feldspars.
C. The most common type of feldspar is as plentiful as quartz.
8. Illegible handwriting does not indicate weakness of character, as even a
quick glance at the penmanship of George Washington, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, or John Kennedy reveals.
A. Washington, Roosevelt, and Kennedy all had handwriting that was difficult to read.
B. A person’s handwriting reveals a lot about that person.
C. The author believes that Washington, Roosevelt, and Kennedy all had weak
characters.