Supporting Inferences with Textual Evidence

You’ve practiced finding main ideas and directly stated details. Now you’ll practice a different GED reading skill: choosing the best evidence for an inference. An inference is a reasonable conclusion based on clues in the passage. Choose the detail that most clearly proves the stated conclusion.

Questions 11–12: Read the passage

Last spring, a group of neighbors turned an empty lot into a community garden. At first, only a few people came to prepare the soil and build garden beds. By midsummer, however, more than thirty residents were helping water plants, pull weeds, and harvest vegetables. The garden also began offering free tomatoes, beans, and herbs to families who lived nearby.

11. Which detail best supports the inference that the community garden became more popular over time?

A. “Last spring, a group of neighbors turned an empty lot into a community garden.”
B. “At first, only a few people came to prepare the soil and build garden beds.”
C. “By midsummer, however, more than thirty residents were helping water plants, pull weeds, and harvest vegetables.”
D. “The garden also began offering free tomatoes, beans, and herbs to families who lived nearby.”

12. Which detail best supports the inference that the garden helped nearby families get fresh food?

A. “The garden also began offering free tomatoes, beans, and herbs to families who lived nearby.”
B. “Only a few people came to prepare the soil and build garden beds.”
C. “More than thirty residents were helping water plants.”
D. “A group of neighbors turned an empty lot into a community garden.”

Questions 13–15: Read the passage

For several years, residents of Brookdale asked the city to add a bus route that ran later in the evening. Before the new route began, some workers had to pay for expensive rides home or wait for family members to pick them up. The city started a three-month trial route that operated from 7:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. After the first month, the buses carried the most passengers on weekday evenings. Because of the strong ridership, the city decided to continue the route for another year.

13. Which detail best supports the inference that the evening bus route is especially useful to people traveling home from work?

A. “Residents of Brookdale asked the city to add a bus route that ran later in the evening.”
B. “Some workers had to pay for expensive rides home or wait for family members to pick them up.”
C. “The city started a three-month trial route.”
D. “The buses carried the most passengers on weekday evenings.”

14. Which detail best supports the inference that city officials viewed the trial bus route as successful?

A. “Residents of Brookdale asked the city to add a bus route.”
B. “The new route began.”
C. “The city decided to continue the route for another year.”
D. “The route operated from 7:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m.”

15. Which detail best supports the inference that the new route was created because the community needed it?

A. “For several years, residents of Brookdale asked the city to add a bus route that ran later in the evening.”
B. “The buses carried the most passengers on weekday evenings.”
C. “The city started a three-month trial route.”
D. “The route operated from 7:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m.”

Reply in this format: 11C, 12A, 13B, 14C, 15A.

Key point: the best evidence does more than relate to the inference—it gives a clear reason to believe it. Next, you’ll finish the English section with five questions on sentence boundaries and subject-verb agreement.