9 original Inferences questions, easiest first. Complete the text with the conclusion it most logically forces. Answer them all, then submit once to see every answer explained.
Archaeologists excavating a coastal trading settlement found finely worked amber jewelry concentrated almost exclusively within a small group of burials located near the settlement's largest warehouse, while burials elsewhere at the site contained only simple pottery.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
D — the individuals buried near the warehouse likely held a role connected to trade or storage.. Finding valuable trade goods concentrated only near the warehouse, unlike simple pottery found elsewhere, suggests those individuals had a distinct connection to trade or storage activity—matching choice D.
Archaeologists excavating a Bronze Age settlement found large storage jars filled with charred grain in nearly every household they examined, alongside no evidence of a centralized granary or communal storage building anywhere in the settlement.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
B — the settlement likely relied on household-level rather than centralized food storage.. Finding grain storage jars in nearly every household but no communal storage building suggests storage happened at the household level rather than being centrally organized—matching choice B. The other choices are contradicted by the evidence described.
A researcher comparing two groups of novice runners found that those who followed a training plan incorporating short sprint intervals improved their 5K race times faster over three months than runners who covered an equal total weekly distance at a single steady pace.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
B — incorporating varied-pace training may be a more effective method for improving race times than steady-pace training alone.. Since weekly distance was equal between groups but the type of training differed in effectiveness, this suggests the specific method (sprint intervals) may be more effective, matching choice B without overstating that steady-pace training is worthless (choice A).
Deep-sea anglerfish live where sunlight never reaches. Because photosynthesis is impossible at these depths, the food web there does not begin with plants. Instead, much of it depends on 'marine snow'—a steady drift of organic particles sinking from the sunlit waters far above. It follows that if this drift of particles were to stop, ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
B — the deep-sea food web would lose a crucial source of energy.. The passage states the deep food web depends heavily on marine snow. If that drift stopped, the web would lose its main energy source—B. A and C contradict the stated impossibility of photosynthesis there; D reverses the premise.
A study of hospital patients found that those assigned to rooms painted a soft green recovered from minor surgery and were discharged, on average, several hours earlier than patients in otherwise identical rooms painted stark white.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
D — the color of a hospital room during recovery may be associated with somewhat faster healing.. Since the rooms were 'otherwise identical' except for paint color, and recovery times differed, this suggests the color itself is associated with the outcome—matching choice D, without overstating the effect as choice A does.
A researcher found that job applicants who submitted resumes with a common, easy-to-pronounce name received callbacks at a similar rate to applicants with identical qualifications but a less common name, once the researcher controlled for the specific font and formatting style used on each resume.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
B — formatting and font choices, rather than name alone, may have influenced callback rates in the uncontrolled comparison.. Since controlling for formatting eliminated the callback-rate difference, this suggests formatting (not name) may have driven differences observed before that control was applied—matching choice B's cautious inference.
A folklorist studying an oral storytelling tradition found that tellers under the age of 35 could recount only about a third as many traditional proverbs as tellers over 65, even though both groups had grown up in the same village and were considered fluent, skilled storytellers by community elders.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
B — knowledge specific to traditional proverbs may be declining across generations even among skilled storytellers.. Since both groups are described as skilled and fluent, but younger tellers know fewer proverbs, this suggests that this specific cultural knowledge—not general storytelling skill—is what's declining across generations, matching choice B.
A study found that customers who used a hardware store's mobile app to check inventory before visiting spent less time browsing store aisles but ultimately purchased a similar number of items compared with customers who did not check the app beforehand, even though both groups had access to identical store inventory.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A — browsing time alone may not be the primary factor determining how many items a customer purchases.. Since purchase quantity was similar despite different browsing times, this suggests browsing time itself isn't the deciding factor in purchase quantity—matching choice A logically without the overstatements in D or B.
In a laboratory experiment, pepper plants exposed to brief, recorded audio of chewing insects each day developed measurably higher concentrations of natural pest-deterrent compounds than genetically identical plants grown in silence with the exact same light and water conditions.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
A — light and water conditions alone may not fully determine a plant's pest-deterrent compound levels.. Since light and water were identical but the audio exposure changed the outcome, this suggests factors beyond light and water—like auditory cues—matter, supporting choice A.
Score:
Every question above is now marked up: the correct answer is highlighted, any wrong option you picked is flagged, and each explanation is open.
No. Every question here is original, written to the College Board's published Digital SAT Reading & Writing specification for the Inferences skill. No retired or copyrighted College Board material appears anywhere on this site.
Inferences gives you a passage ending in a blank, usually after a phrase like "therefore" or "this suggests that", and asks which choice most logically completes it. The answer is not stated in the passage, but it must follow from the passage alone.
Read to the blank and finish the thought yourself before looking at the choices. Then apply one test to each choice: could this be false while everything in the passage is true? If yes, it is not the inference. The correct answer is usually the most cautious of the four, because it is the only one the text fully guarantees.
No, and deliberately so. This drill is 9 Inferences questions back to back; a real Reading & Writing module is 27 questions in 32 minutes drawn from all eleven skills. Use a drill to fix one weakness, then take a full module to practice the real thing.
No. The SAT has no penalty for a wrong answer — a blank and a wrong guess both score zero — so answer every question, including the ones you have to guess.