An inference question with a blank tests whether you can draw a conclusion from the text’s clues. Read the words leading into the blank to see what kind of ending it needs. If the text compares the past with the present, put each change in a few words, then ask what they show together. Predict the smallest conclusion the clues support. Wrong choices often add claims that sound possible but need facts the text never gives.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look for the changes from a decade ago to today. Include the details about plots and workshops, not only the number of gardens.
- Hint 2
Put the waiting-list and workshop clues in a few words. What is the smallest conclusion that both clues support?
Step-by-step
Join the clues to draw a conclusion
Step 1Start with the change over time
Brookfield had only a few small community gardens a decade ago and now has more than twenty. What does This suggests that ask us to do with that change? It asks for a conclusion, so let’s connect the number of gardens with the later details about their use. More gardens are available now, but we still need to see how residents are responding.
- Step 2
Use the waits and workshop turnout
Do the extra gardens seem to be meeting all the demand? Plots are claimed within days, and waiting lists have grown longer every year, so even with more gardens, more people are waiting for a place. The workshops also draw twice as many attendees as when they began, which shows growth in another gardening activity. Put together, the clues suggest gardening is drawing more people than before. That’s a conclusion about the trend the text describes, without adding any facts.
- Step 3
Keep the conclusion within the clues
Which ending stays within those clues? Plans to sell produce adds a city plan the text never gives, and mandatory adds a rule for getting a plot. The prediction that the waiting lists will disappear next spring goes against the trend with no support. Increased residents’ interest in urban gardening is the smallest conclusion supported by the trend, so it completes the reasoning without adding a plan, a rule, or a future event. Choice C.