College Board SAT Reading Practice -Mastering Inference Questions on the SAT - Part 2
- Wallace English
- Jun 4
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 9
In this College Board SAT Reading Practice post, we’ll walk through several SAT-style inference and support questions, helping you practice the skill of drawing logical conclusions from short passages.
Some of the following questions ask you to make inferences from the passages. To infer means to arrive at a conclusion by reasoning from evidence. Synonyms for infer are deduce, judge, or conclude. If you are told to infer something from a passage, you are basically being asked what conclusions can be drawn from the content of the story.
Tip: If you replace the word infer with conclude in a question, it may make more sense to you.
One of the missions of the Peace Corps is to help the people of interested countries meet their need for trained men and women. People who work for the Peace Corps do so because they want to, but to keep the agency dynamic with fresh ideas, no staff member can work for the agency for more than five years.
The paragraph best supports the statement that Peace Corps employees
a. are highly intelligent people.
b. must train for about five years.
c. are hired for a limited term of employment.
d. have both academic and work experience.
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Answer
More and more office workers telecommute from offices in their own homes. The upside of telecommuting is both greater productivity and greater flexibility. Telecommuters produce, on average, 20% more than if they were to work in an office, and their flexible schedule allows them to balance both their family and work responsibilities.
The paragraph best supports the statement that telecommuters
a. get more work done in a given time period than workers who travel to the office.
b. produce a better quality work product than workers who travel to the office.
c. are more flexible in their ideas than workers who travel to the office.
d. would do 20% more work if they were to work in an office.
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Answer
Sushi, the thousand-year-old Japanese delicacy, started small in the United States, in a handful of restaurants in big cities. Today, sushi consumption in America is 50% greater than it was ten years ago and not just in restaurants. Sushi is also sold at concession stands in sports stadiums, university dining halls, and in supermarkets throughout the country.
This paragraph best supports the statement that
a. sushi is now a fast food as popular as hot dogs, burgers, and fries.
b. more sushi is sold in restaurants than in supermarkets.
c. Americans are more adventurous eaters than they were in the past.
d. sushi wasn’t always widely available in the United States.
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Answer
Today’s shopping mall has as its antecedents historical marketplaces, such as Greek agoras, European piazzas, and Asian bazaars. The purpose of these sites, as with the shopping mall, is both economic and social. People not only go to buy and sell wares, but also to be seen, catch up on news, and be part of the human drama.
The paragraph best supports the statement that
a. modern Americans spend an average of 15 hours a month in shopping malls.
b. shopping malls serve an important purpose in our culture.
c. shopping malls have a social as well as commercial function.
d. there are historical antecedents for almost everything in contemporary society.
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Answer
Many animals hibernate during parts of the year, entering a state that is similar to a very deep sleep. But hibernation is more than simply a deep sleep. The animal’s body temperature drops well below its normal range, the animal does not wake up for a long period of time, and its metabolism slows to the point that the animal does not need to eat or relieve itself during that period.
In order to prepare for hibernation, the animal must build up its body weight and increase its body fat. This is important, since the animal will be living off its own body fat during the months of hibernation. Of course, once the period of hibernation is over, the animal “wakes up” to find itself slim and trim once again!
How does an animal prepare for hibernation?
a. It exercises for two months.
b. It gradually increases its sleeping habits.
c. It grows extra fur.
d. It eats more food than usual.
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Answer
This passage best supports the statement that
a. all animals hibernate to some degree.
b. food is scarce in the winter.
c. hibernation is very different from normal sleep.
d. bears hibernate every year.
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Answer
Too easy? Check our other posts for more examples.
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