Inferences

Which choice most logically completes the text? or Based on the text, which of the following can most reasonably be inferred?

An SAT inference is not a leap. It's the next sentence — the one so firmly implied by what's written that the author simply didn't bother to say it.

#The governing rule

The correct answer is the smallest step. Of the four choices, the right one is almost always the least interesting: the most cautious, the most hedged, the one that feels like it barely says anything.

This is counterintuitive, because the interesting choice feels like it demonstrates comprehension. It doesn't. It demonstrates that you supplied a premise the text didn't.

#The method

1. Find the logical gap. These passages usually set up two facts and stop. The blank goes where the consequence would be.
2. Complete it yourself, minimally. One clause. Don't embellish.
3. Test every choice with: "does the text force this?" Not "is this plausible", not "does an expert think this" — does the text, alone, make it necessary?

#The trap words

Scan every choice for these before anything else:

• all, every, never, always, only, none — a universal claim from a passage about one study or one case. Nearly always wrong.
• because, therefore, causes, leads to — cause asserted where the text described a correlation or a sequence.
• most, primary, main, the key factor — a ranking the text never made. If the passage lists three factors without ordering them, no choice can say which matters most.
• will, must — prediction or necessity from a text that described a tendency.

#Worked shape

Researchers found that trees connected to the same fungal network transferred carbon between them, with more carbon flowing toward saplings growing in shade than toward those in full sun. This pattern held even when the shaded and sunlit saplings were unrelated, suggesting that ______.

The text gives you: transfer happens, it's directed toward shade, relatedness doesn't matter.

• "trees are capable of altruism" — a leap into intent. No.
• "fungal networks are essential to forest survival" — essential is a much larger claim than anything shown. No.
• "the direction of transfer is not determined by kinship" — this is the smallest step, and it's exactly what "held even when unrelated" means. Yes.
• "shaded saplings would die without the transfer" — the text never mentions death or dependence. No.

The right answer restates the evidence one notch more abstractly. That's what inference means here.