An inference question with an if statement tests what you can conclude from the text’s reasoning. Find what happened and what the text says about it, and put each in a few words. An if statement describes what follows under a condition; it doesn’t by itself say that condition is true. Then ask why the behavior seems puzzling, and predict the smallest conclusion the clues support. Stay within the clues, because a possible explanation isn’t automatically a supported one.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the drawbacks of relying on the shared fleet in the first sentence. Why is the participants’ choice surprising?
- Hint 2
Read the researchers’ condition alongside that choice. What does the behavior suggest about the condition introduced by if?
Step-by-step
Test the condition against the choice
Step 1Pin down the puzzle
Participants who could afford to own a car still chose the shared fleet. What makes their choice puzzling, and what must the blank explain? Sharing often cost them more money over time and sometimes left them without a vehicle. They could afford the alternative, yet their choice carried drawbacks in both cost and availability.
- Step 2
Read the condition carefully
What is the researchers’ if statement testing? They say if monetary savings and guaranteed availability were the only motivations for car ownership, choosing the fleet would be irrational. That’s a condition to test, not something they say is true. The behavior gives us reason to question whether those reasons tell the whole story, rather than assume the participants acted irrationally. We can predict that the two stated reasons don’t fully explain their choice.
- Step 3
Reject unreported beliefs
Their observation reports what participants did, but does it report what they believed? The endings about people who generally misjudge costs or underestimate demand spikes add mistaken beliefs the passage never reports. And the researchers assume turns the if statement into something they believe is true. We can set these aside because the text gives no evidence for those beliefs.
- Step 4
Limit the conclusion
How many people does this finding tell us about? A striking proportion of participants supports a conclusion about some people, not everyone. The word convenience covers being able to get a vehicle when needed, so it includes the availability clue. The choice about factors other than cost and convenience limits its claim to some people, which is all this group can show. Choice D.