Virtual University ENG 101

Lesson -12
Dr.Surriya Shaffi Mir

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Making Inferences
1. You are familiar with the expression “to read
between the lines”, which means that you pick up
ideas that are not directly stated in the material you
are reading. The writer is giving or making a
suggestion but stating it directly i.e. he is implying
something. These implied ideas are often important
for a full understanding of what the writer means.
It is this discovering of ideas in writing that are not
stated directly that is called “making inferences” or
drawing conclusions.
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2. Our aim is to help you not only become a better reader but
a strong thinker – a person able not only to understand
what is read but to analyze and evaluate it as well. In fact,
reading and thinking are closely related skills, and practice
in thoughtful reading will also strengthen your ability to
think clearly and logically. It is a higher level skill.
3. In everyday life we are constantly making inferences. For
e.g. you go out in the street and you notice a large crowd
gathered outside a shop, and you also notice a lot of
broken glass on the road. As you get closer you hear loud
talking. Before you even reach the shop, you have inferred
what all the fuss is about - there has been an
accident.
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4. How did you arrive at these inferences? First you
used your experience of life and general
knowledge of people. Second, you made informed
guesses which were based on the facts you
observed. Remember not all your inferences will
necessarily prove true. For e.g. it is possible that
the crowd gathered outside is not because of an
accident between cars etc. but because of a quarrel
among some people and while fighting among
themselves they hit the glass windows of the shop
and it turned into a nasty brawl. In any case, the
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more evidence you have, the more solid your
5. Now consider another two incidents. Write down
on a piece of paper what you might infer if you
saw the following two occurrences.
i) A high school has policemen walking up and
down its main hall.
What would you infer? _______________
ii) A dog shrinks or cringes when you try to pat
him
What would you infer? _______________

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 The inferences you probably made are that, in
the first situation, there is a public examination going
on/or there is an important function taking place and
some high-ranking person is present. And in the
second situation you probably inferred that the dog
has previously been maltreated and is afraid of
people.
Look at the following two pictures on your
screen and put a tick mark against the inference(s)
most logically supported by the information given in
the picture.
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Picture 1

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1. The old woman is asking for something.
2. The old woman couldn’t see because of the smoke.
3. The old woman was pointing to a no-smoking sign.

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Picture 2.

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1.The man has a problem with his vision.
2.The boy is doing his homework.
3.The man watches a lot of TV.
4.The father cannot read.
Reasons:
No. 1. is supported by the picture. Father wearing
glasses, sitting close to TV set.
No.2. Not logical (artist would have given some clue
that the boy was reading a school book.
No.3. Logical
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No.4. Not supported by evidence
 Inferences in Reading
In reading also we make logical jumps from the
information given or stated directly to ideas that
are not stated directly. i.e. we make statements or
draw conclusions about what is not known on the
basis of what is known or given. So, to draw
inferences the reader uses all the clues provided by
the writer, his own experience i.e. the reader’s own
experience and logic.
8. Read the sentences given on your screen and put a
tick mark by the inference most logically based on
the information in the sentence. 11
Sohail always sits in the last row of the classroom.

a. Sohail dislikes his college courses.

b. Sohail is unprepared for his class.
c. Sohail feels uncomfortable sitting in the front
row
d. Sohail is farsighted

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The given sentence tells us nothing about how Sohail
feels about his college courses, how prepared he is, or
how well he sees. So answers a, b or d are
possibilities, but none is directly suggested by the
sentence. The correct answer is therefore c. Based on
the information we are given, we can conclude only
that Sohail – for some reason – does not like sitting in
the front. We are not given enough information to
know why he feels this way.
Remember your inferences will be stronger if you
don’t jump to conclusions that are unsupported or that
are only very weakly supported by the available
information. 13
9. Now you will have some more practice in drawing
inferences. Read the given sentences and put a tick
mark by the inference, most logically supported by
the information given in the sentence.
1. The Arabic language contains numerous words
describing different types of camels.
a. There is really only one kind of camel.
b. The Arabic language clearly has many times
more words than the English language.
c. The Arabic language probably also has
numerous words for different types of dates.
d. The exact nature of camels is important to the
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desert way of life.
2. A man enters his office building, marches past a
group of fellow employees without returning there
greetings and goes into his office, slamming the
door.
a. The man has just lost his job
b. The man has quarreled with his boss.
c. The man is in a bad mood.
d. The man is angry with his wife.

3. Read the passage & then check the four statements

which are most logically supported by the
information given.
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The elimination of jobs because of super-automation
is not limited to industrial factories – offices are
increasingly electronic. Engineers and architects now
draw three dimensional designs, update them, test
them, and store them almost instantaneously in a
computer. Agriculture employs robot fruit pickers and
sheepshearers, computerized irrigation systems that
use sensors to calculate water and fertilizer needs in
different parts of a field, and automated chicken
houses.

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Retail stores, banks, and brokerage houses use on-line
transaction processing to obtain instant information
and to conduct transactions. Laser scanning and bar
codes are transforming the physical handling of codes
by retailers and wholesale distributors. A final
example of technological change affecting jobs is the
widespread use of televisions, telephones, and
personal computers for the purposes of home banking
and shopping.

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-1.Computers will soon replace engineers and
architects.
-2.There will be more jobs for people who run and
repair electronic devices.
-3.One function of superautomation is the handling
and storage of information.
4. Restaurants can’t benefit from superautomation
-5. Machines can help company employees
accomplish more.
6. Superautomation requires few adjustments form
society.

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7. Superautomation has advantages and
disadvantages.
8. Laser technology is limited to the business world.

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1 a) You might like to ask why the Sun is able to
supply its own light, heat, and energy, whereas the
Earth and the other planets only shine feebly with the
aid of borrowed light. Strange as it may seem, it is best
to start this problem by Strange as it may seem, it is
best to start this problem by considering the interior of
the Earth.

b) The morrow brought a very sober-looking

morning, the sun making only a few efforts to appear;
and Catherine augured from it everything most
favourable to her wishes. A bright morning so early in
the year, she allowed, would generally turn to rain; but
a cloudy one foretold improvement as the day 20
advanced.
c) Your mother and I were so happy then. It
seemed as though we had everything we could ever
want. I think the last day the sun shone was when that
dirty little train steamed out of that crowded,
suffocating Indian station, and the battalion band
playing for all it was worth. I knew in my heart it was
all over then. Everything.

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 Inferences in Literature
If you are fond of reading novels, short stories, poetry,
etc. you will know that inference is very important in
understanding and appreciating literature. While non-
fiction writers, that is, writers of factual material, usually
state directly what they mean, fiction or creative writers
often show what they mean by describing the scene or
situation. It is for the reader to infer the point of what the
writer has to say. I shall illustrate this with an example.
A non-fiction writer might write:
Henry was angry at his wife .
A fiction/creative writer might write
Henry’s eyes narrowed when his wife spoke to him. He
cut her off in the middle of the sentence with the words, 22
“I
don’t have time to argue with you.”
Instead of simply stating that Henry was angry, the
creative writer has through his description shown
Henry’s anger.
If you read literature – poetry, short stories, novels,
biographies, etc… you will need to apply inference skills.
Your understanding and appreciation of such works
where a lot of meaning is implied i.e. not stated directly,
will depend on this skill. Now I shall read a very short
poem of four lines. Its written by the American poet
James Russell Lowell and is called “Sixty – Eight
Birthday”.

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It’s written by the American poet James Russell Lowell
and is called “Sixty – Eight Birthday”.

“Sixty – Eight Birthday”

As life runs on, the road grows strange
With faces new, and near the end
The milestones into headstones change,
‘Neath every one a friend.
J. R. Lowell
Milestone: a slab of stone set up in the ground to show
the distance in miles on a road.
Headstone: a stone which marks the top end of a grave,
usually having the buried person’s name on it
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1. We infer that the speaker in the poem is sixty-eight
although the poem does not state that the speaker is
sixty eight. The title of the poem strongly implies it.
That is the purpose of the title.

2. The poem compares life to a road with milestones – 1st

& 3rd lines suggest that life runs on a road marked by
milestones along it. As we move along the road we
meet new faces of people we are not familiar with.

3. The poem implies that birthdays are like milestones

that mark the distance covered i.e. the years lived.

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A time comes when, life’s milestones turn into
headstones the markers set into graves, meaning in
other words that life ends in death.

4. The final line implies that as we get older more and

more friends die. Under all the headstones are friends.

You will see a short poem on your screen. Read the

poem titled ‘Fog’ by Carl Sandburg and answer the
question given at the end.

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 Fog
The fog comes
On little cat feet.
It sets looking ones harbor and city
On silent haunches
And then moves on.
C Sandburg
Put a tick mark ( )against the answer that is based on
the poem.
1. The way the fog moves is compared to
a. The movements in the harbor
b. The movements in the city
c. The way a cat moves
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2. This comparison implies that the fog
a. floats over the harbor
b. hangs over the city
c. moves quickly and silently

3. The comparison with the cat continues with the

word.
a. harbor
b. haunches
c. city
4. The poem implies that the fog
a. stays for a while and then leaves
b. stays too long
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c. never stays
5. The poem shows fog as
a. dangerous
b. quiet
c. full of movement

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 Another way in which writers can
indicate character is through the words they
put into their character’s mouths. The
readers have to read between the lines and
infer meanings which may not be directly
stated. This is true of novels and other
genres of literature. In drama, for example,
playwrights expect their audience to read
between the lines of the dialogue and use
inference to depict the diversity of their
characterization. 30
This is, of course, an important-possibly the
most important-element of the dramatist’s
art, to reveal his characters through their
speech, but other writers employ the device
as well.
Study the following passage from P.G.
Woodhouse’s ‘Thank you, Jeeves’.
‘Jeeves’, I said, ‘do you know what?’
‘No sir.’ 31
‘No, sir.
‘Do you know whom I saw last night?
‘no, sir.”
‘J. Washburn Stoker and his daughter,
Pauline.’
‘Indeed, sir?.
‘Awkward, what?’
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‘I can conceive that after what occurred in
New York it might be distressing for you to
encounter Miss Stoker, sir. But I fancy the
contingency need scarcely arise.’
I weighed this.
‘When you start talking about contingencies
arising, Jeeves, the brain seems to flicker
and I rather miss the gist. Do you mean I
ought to be able to keep out of her way?
‘Yes, sir.’ 33
‘Avoid her?
‘Yes, sir.’
(P.G. WODEHOUSE, Thank You, Jeeves)

Look at Jeeves’s answers. Apart from one

speech, they are very economical. What can
we deduce about the kind of person Jeeves
is and his attitude towards his master from
this economy of speech, from what Jeeves
actually says and from what is implied?
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 In today's lesson you’ve had practice in reading
between lives “first in non-fiction or factual
writing and then in creative writing, in finding
out meaning that is not stated directly. This is a
skill that you can only acquire by reading
extensively.
So much for today
See you next time
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Allah Hafiz