Inference Qs in RC

Question

Hello Experts,

Is it true the answer to inference Qs on RC won't or rather may not be contained in the passage ?

Regards,
Sachin

KarishmaB · Answer

They are called inference questions because you have to infer something from whatever is given in the passage i.e. you will not find the answer directly in the passage (as opposed to specific detail questions in which the answer is given in the passage and you just have to locate it). But that does not mean that you have to use outside knowledge to answer the question. You have to just infer it.

As a simplistic example, suppose the passage tells you that in 2005, the population of a country was 500 mil. Then it goes on to describe famines, earthquakes that the country had to face and it mentions that the population of the country has been steadily decreasing.

Can you infer that now, the population of the country is less than 500 mil? Sure. This is what you might be asked.

Mind you, you will have enough info to 'infer' e.g. in the example above, if you are not given that the population has been decreasing, you cannot 'infer' it from the famines/earthquake scenario because the birth rate could be much higher. Hence, there is nothing to worry about. It is just like the inference questions of CR. The only complication is that the data from which you need to collectively infer could be at different places in the long passage.

Sachin9 · Answer

Thanks a lot Karishma!

Your explanations are really nice!

Inference Qs in RC

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