inference

An inference is a conclusion the passage supports but never states. The test for one is mechanical: find the sentence or sentences that must be true for the answer to hold — usually two, sometimes one — and check that the passage actually gives them. If the answer needs a fact from outside the passage, it is not an inference — it is a guess. Questions ask for one in several ways: what does the passage imply, what does it suggest, what would most likely happen, what can be concluded. All of them are answered from the passage alone, which is why the word most likely appears: an inference is the reading the text points at, not the only thing that could ever happen. The trap is a claim that is sensible and unsupported — a reason, an intention or a comparison the passage never makes. Ask which sentence would have to be there; if none would, the option is out.