Inference PDF

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Inference...

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Test your knowledge with this quick recall quiz before moving on to the practice exercises and tests.

1. Drawing inferences is sometimes called "reading between the lines." a) False b) True 2. Using figurative language is one way a writer ______________ or states indirectly. a) injects b) implies c) implores d) interferes 3. Which of the following are forms of figurative language? a) simile b) irony c) symbolism d) all of the above 4. Drawing inferences requires the reader to connect with his or her prior knowledge.

a) True b) False 5. When readers understand meanings not directly stated, they ________ what the writer means. a) imply b) infer c) ingest d) include 6. Before readers can draw inferences, they must understand the literal meaning. a) True b) False 7. Figurative language is one way a writer ______________ or states indirectly. a) injects b) implies c) includes d) infers

8. The connotation of a word is the __________ or sense of the word beyond the dictionary definition. a) figure b) feeling c) clue d) definition 9. When writers use irony, they say the __________ of what they mean. a) same b) opposite c) tone d) simile 10. When a writer compares two things directly using "like" or "as," it is called a ______________. a) simple b) simile c) symbol d) none of the above 11.

When writers use ____________, they give human qualities to things or animals. a) definition b) personification c) purpose d) symbol 12. When an object represents an abstract idea, an author is using a ________________. a) synonym b) syllogism c) symbol d) description Here's some practice in recognizing positive and negative connotations. In each question, you will be asked to choose the word with the negative connotation. 1. Which of the following words has a negative connotation? a) pornography b) nudity c) naked

d) bare Correct! This choice is the most negative. 2. Which of the following words has a negative connotation? a) pale b) white c) translucent d) pasty Correct! This choice is the most negative. 3. Which of the following words has a negative connotation? a) weak b) fragile c) puny d) frail Correct! This choice is the most negative. 4. Which of the following words has a negative connotation? a) responsibility b) accountability c) duty d)

obligation Correct! This choice is the most negative. 5. Which two of the following words have negative connotations? emaciated, skinny, thin, anorexic, slender Your Answer: Skinny, and emaciated. Feedback: The two words with negative connotations are emaciated and anorexic. Preview and actively read the paragraphs. As you read, search for context clues that can help you understand the meaning of unfamiliar words or phrases. Then answer the questions. Waterfront Options Hyde Street Pier is located at Hyde and Jefferson Streets at the west end of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Historic ships are anchored there. The Visitor Center is located directly across the street. Highlights of the Visitor Center include the large lighthouse lens and an exhibit on shipwrecks of the Golden Gate. The Maritime Museum is located at the corner of Polk and Beach Streets in Aquatic Park. This museum provides exhibits and information on maritime history from the Gold Rush to the present. Tourists will enjoy the ship models, photographs, and artifacts from historic ships at the Maritime Museum. The park also includes the beach at Aquatic Park and Victorian Park where the cable cars turn around. Both of these locations provide excellent views and a relaxing place for a lunch break. Look for the following ships at Hyde Street Pier. 1886 square-rigger Balclutha 1895 schooner C.A. Thayer 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka 1891 scow schooner Alma

1907 steam tug Hercules 1914 paddlewheel tug Eppleton Hall Source: National Park Service. “San Francisco Maritime: Ships and Pier.” Web. 1 Dec 2006. 6. By reading the title of the selection and then actively reading the selection, which definition best defines the word options? a) highlights b) choices c) schooner d) ships Correct! 7. The C.A. Thayer is which of the following? a) a ship at Hyde Street Pier b) a ship at Pier 39 c) a lighthouse d) an exhibit in the Visitor Center Correct! 8. What is a wharf? a) boat b) fish

c) fisherman d) dock Correct! 9. The exhibits in a maritime museum would be related to what? a) fine art b) military history c) sailing d) science Correct! 10. Where can a visitor to Fisherman’s Wharf find a beach? Your Answer: Hyde Street Pier is located at Hyde and Jefferson Streets at the west end of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Feedback: Beaches can be found at Aquatic Park or Victorian Park. Preview the following selection. Then read it and answer the questions. You will receive your score at the end. There is no feedback during the test. Chicago Chicago’s early boosters bragged that nature had given their city everything it needed to be great: a river running through it and a

harbor on busy Lake Michigan. What the boosters did not say was that the river was short and shallow—“a sluggish, slimy stream, too lazy to cleanse itself,” a visitor noted—or that sand often blocked the entrance to the harbor. To make Chicago work, humans would have to intrude upon nature to change the river and clear the harbor, creating out of “first nature” a “second nature,” as environmental historian William Cronon put it. They did just that. In remaking “first nature,” government-financed engineers deepened the river and erected barriers to the sand. Then they turned to another of nature’s challenges—the thick, cloying mud that plagued Chicago whenever it rained. Using muscle and jacks, they simply lifted the city a dozen feet out of the mud, producing “second nature” once again. The city, now raised to working level, next turned to the railroads, the dazzling technological innovation that mastered nature to transform nineteenth century life. Unlike rivers and canals, railroads could go virtually anywhere, and many of them wound up going to Chicago, which became the main terminal point for trains heading east and west. It was “natural” for them to do so. Chicagoans believed, and they certainly seemed right. By the early 1890s, one-twenty-fifth of all railroad mileage in the world terminated in Chicago. They terminated there, in part, to drop off and pick up the city’s most recent tinkering with nature, the pigs and cows destined to feed the country’s growing population. A city that exuded life and growth, Chicago became filled with death, famed for “the Chicago style” of killing pigs. It was, said British writer Rudyard Kipling after visiting the city, a “death factory.” To organize the killing, the giant Union Stockyards opened on Christmas Day, 1865, built just south of the city on a marshy prairie prone to flooding. “Second nature” again took charge. Thirty miles of pipes drained the water from the prairie. The water, carrying with it waste from the stockyards, discharged into the Chicago River, which soon smelled horrific and carried disease. Within the stockyards, 10 miles of troughs dispersed corn and hay among 2,000 pens, to feed at any one time 21,000 head of cattle, 75,000 pigs, and 22,000 sheep. Sidetracks allowed animals to be brought into the yards for

slaughter and then carried the resulting products out to distant markets. —Divine, Robert A., et al, America Past and Present. 7th ed. New York: Pearson, 2005. 526-527. 1. “A sluggish, slimy stream, too lazy to cleanse itself” is an example of which of the following? a) a simile b) a metaphor c) personification d) none of the above Correct. 2. What does the article imply about “Chicagoans?” a) They were afraid to take risks. b) They were innovative. c) They were foolish. d) They were incompetent. Correct. 3. What does the term “second nature” seem to indicate? a) It referred to something innate. b) The Chicagoans received a second chance.

c) It referred to pollution from “first nature.” d) The Chicagoans reengineered “first nature.” Incorrect. 4. Kipling was using which of the following when he referred to Chicago as a “death factory?” a) a simile b) a metaphor c) personification d) irony Correct. 5. The Chicago River, “which . . . carried disease,” could be called what? a) a simile b) a metaphor c) personification d) irony Correct. 6. What is so ironic about the “killing” in paragraph 5? Your Answer: They onpened on Christmas Day, and the water carried waste from

the stockyard, discharged into the Chicago River, which soon smelled horrific and carried disease. Preview the following selection. Then read it and answer the questions. You will receive your score at the end. There is no feedback during the test. The Erie Canal A transportation system based solely on rivers and roads had one enormous gap—it did not provide an economical way to ship western farm produce directly east to ports engaged in transatlantic trade or to the growing urban market of the seaboard states. The solution offered by the politicians and merchants of the Middle Atlantic and Midwestern states was to build a system of canals that linked seaboard cities directly to the Great Lakes, the Ohio, and ultimately the Mississippi. The best natural location for a canal connecting a river flowing into the Atlantic with one of the Great Lakes was between Albany and Buffalo, a relatively flat stretch of 364 miles. The potential value of such a project had long been recognized, but when it was actually approved by the New York legislature in 1817, it was justly hailed as an enterprise of breathtaking boldness. At that time, no more than about 100 miles of canal existed in the entire United States, and the longest single canal extended only 26 miles. Credit for the project belongs mainly to New York’s vigorous and farsighted governor, De Witt Clinton. He persuaded the New York state legislature to underwrite the project by issuing bonds, and construction began in 1818. In less than two years, 75 miles were already finished and the first tolls were being collected. In 1825, the entire canal was opened with great public acclaim and celebration. At 364 miles long, 40 feet wide, and 4 feet deep, and containing 84 locks, the Erie Canal was the most spectacular engineering achievement of the young republic. Furthermore, it was a great economic success. It reduced the cost of moving goods from Buffalo to Albany to one-twelfth the previous rate. It not only lowered the cost of western products in the East but caused an even sharper decline in the price of goods imported from the East by westerners. It also

helped to make New York City the commercial capital of the nation. —Divine, Robert A., et al. America Past and Present. 7th ed. New York: Pearson, 2005, 257-258. Print. 7. Why would the builders choose a flat spot to build a canal? a) It would be easier to see long distances. b) It would require less work to build. c) It was the only land owned by the government. d) If the canal flooded, it wouldn’t cause as much damage. Correct. 8. The word “vigorous” used to describe De Witt Clinton has which of the following connotations? a) negative b) ambivalent c) positive d) jovial Correct. 9. The following statement: “it [the canal] was justly hailed as an enterprise of breathtaking boldness” is what? a) a simile b) an opinion

c) a metaphor d) personification Correct. 10. “The Erie Canal was the most spectacular engineering achievement of the young republic.” This sentence is which of the following? a) figurative b) literal c) simile d) symbolic Correct. 11. Which of the following can be inferred from the text? a) Albany and Buffalo are in New York. b) The Erie Canal may not have happened without Governor De Witt Clinton. c) The Erie Canal was 364 miles long. d) Both A and B can be inferred. Correct. 12. What implication can you make regarding the suggestion of the politicians in paragraph 1 after reading the rest of the passage? Your Answer:

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