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Inference Skills
One of the skills you need to develop when completing a reading comprehension is 'inference'.
You can think of 'inference' as meaning to 'read between the lines'.
You have to look very carefully at the different phrases and the language the author has used.
You can then make a judgement or opinion about a situation or a character described.
When you infer something from a text, you become a detective looking for clues to build up a picture of the plot, characters and meaning.
Sometimes the clues are easy to find, sometimes subtle and sometimes scattered throughout the text.
Example:
'Eleanor stared at the terrarium. She could see no movement in the glass tank, which was full of cobwebs and foliage.'
Question: What type of creature lives in the terrarium and how do you know?
Answer: A spider lives in the terrarium. I know this because the author describes the cobwebs that the spider has made.
In this activity, there will be questions based on different extracts of text, and some will require manual marking.
In order for you to practise how to answer comprehension questions using inference, you will need to be able to put your answer into your own words, using evidence from the text.
Are you ready to give it a go?
