English Language Proficiency Test : Inferences
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Example Question #31 : Inferences
1 It has afforded the Author great amusement and satisfaction, during the progress of this work, to learn, from country friends and from a variety of ludicrous statements concerning himself in provincial newspapers, that more than one Yorkshire schoolmaster lays claim to being the original of Mr. Squeers. 2 One worthy, he has reason to believe, has actually consulted authorities learned in the law, as to his having good grounds on which to rest an action for libel; another, has meditated a journey to London, for the express purpose of committing an assault and battery on his traducer; a third, perfectly remembers being waited on, last January twelve-month, by two gentlemen, one of whom held him in conversation while the other took his likeness; and, although Mr. Squeers has but one eye, and he has two, and the published sketch does not resemble him (whoever he may be) in any other respect, still he and all his friends and neighbours know at once for whom it is meant, because—the character is so like him.
3 While the Author cannot but feel the full force of the compliment thus conveyed to him, he ventures to suggest that these contentions may arise from the fact, that Mr. Squeers is the representative of a class, and not of an individual. 4 Where imposture, ignorance, and brutal cupidity, are the stock in trade of a small body of men, and one is described by these characteristics, all his fellows will recognise something belonging to themselves, and each will have a misgiving that the portrait is his own.
What is one purpose of this passage?
To request more reviews of the author’s work
To provide humorous anecdotes about one reaction to the author’s writing
To accuse schoolteachers of not understanding the author’s work
To solicit further responses from schoolteachers
To complain about widespread reactions to the author’s writing
To provide humorous anecdotes about one reaction to the author’s writing
The passage relates the way various schoolteachers have responded to the author’s character. It does so in a vivid and humorous way, employing sarcasm and purposely euphemistic language for comical effect.
Passage adapted from Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby (1838).
Example Question #32 : Inferences
1 It has afforded the Author great amusement and satisfaction, during the progress of this work, to learn, from country friends and from a variety of ludicrous statements concerning himself in provincial newspapers, that more than one Yorkshire schoolmaster lays claim to being the original of Mr. Squeers. 2 One worthy, he has reason to believe, has actually consulted authorities learned in the law, as to his having good grounds on which to rest an action for libel; another, has meditated a journey to London, for the express purpose of committing an assault and battery on his traducer; a third, perfectly remembers being waited on, last January twelve-month, by two gentlemen, one of whom held him in conversation while the other took his likeness; and, although Mr. Squeers has but one eye, and he has two, and the published sketch does not resemble him (whoever he may be) in any other respect, still he and all his friends and neighbours know at once for whom it is meant, because—the character is so like him.
3 While the Author cannot but feel the full force of the compliment thus conveyed to him, he ventures to suggest that these contentions may arise from the fact, that Mr. Squeers is the representative of a class, and not of an individual. 4 Where imposture, ignorance, and brutal cupidity, are the stock in trade of a small body of men, and one is described by these characteristics, all his fellows will recognise something belonging to themselves, and each will have a misgiving that the portrait is his own.
What is another purpose of this passage?
To explain why a critic’s review of the author’s work is unjust
To announce a countersuit against the libelous schoolteachers
None of these
To act as a disclaimer that one of the author’s characters is not based on a real person
To complain about the schoolteachers’ boycott of the author’s work
To act as a disclaimer that one of the author’s characters is not based on a real person
Sentences 3 and 4 serve to explain that, although certain people may recognize themselves in the author’s character, the character is not based on a real person. Rather, the character based is on an entire class of people to which the complainers belong. Note how the author suggests “that these contentions may arise from the fact, that Mr. Squeers is the representative of a class, and not of an individual. Where imposture, ignorance, and brutal cupidity, are the stock in trade of a small body of men, and one is described by these characteristics, all his fellows will recognize something belonging to themselves, and each will have a misgiving that the portrait is his own.”
Passage adapted from Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby (1838).
Example Question #4 : Purpose
1 "Camelot—Camelot," said I to myself. 2 "I don't seem to remember hearing of it before… Name of the asylum, likely."
3 It was a soft, reposeful summer landscape, as lovely as a dream, and as lonesome as Sunday. 4 The air was full of the smell of flowers, and the buzzing of insects, and the twittering of birds, and there were no people, no wagons, there was no stir of life, nothing going on. 5 The road was mainly a winding path with hoof-prints in it, and now and then a faint trace of wheels on either side in the grass—wheels that apparently had a tire as broad as one's hand.
6 Presently a fair slip of a girl, about ten years old, with a cataract of golden hair streaming down over her shoulders, came along. … 7 The circus man paid no attention to her; didn't even seem to see her. 8 And she—she was no more startled at his fantastic make-up than if she was used to his like every day of her life. 9 She was going by as indifferently as she might have gone by a couple of cows; but when she happened to notice me, then there was a change! 10 Up went her hands, and she was turned to stone; her mouth dropped open, her eyes stared wide and timorously, she was the picture of astonished curiosity touched with fear. 11 And there she stood gazing, in a sort of stupefied fascination, till we turned a corner of the wood and were lost to her view. 12 That she should be startled at me instead of at the other man, was too many for me; I couldn't make head or tail of it.
In Sentence 5, which detail does the speaker find most striking?
None of these
That the road had strange hoof-prints in it
That the road was winding
That the road had only faint traces of wheels
That the wheels had unusually broad tires
That the wheels had unusually broad tires
The use of the word “apparently” is key here. The speaker notes the other details in Sentence 5 without editorializing or commenting upon them, but his use of the word “apparently” implies that he’s surprised the wheels are so wide. We can infer from this word that the wheels the speaker is familiar with are much more narrow, and that he can hardly believe that the tracks he sees belong to wheels at all.
Passage adapted from Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)
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