An inference question tests whether you can finish a text with a conclusion its clues support. Read the words leading into the blank to see what kind of ending you need. When the passage gives physical traces and a location, ask what the traces show at that location, then put each clue in a few words. Predict the smallest conclusion that uses all the clues. Extra details need their own evidence, even if they tell a believable story.
Hints
- Hint 1
Start with the microscopy and chemical tests on the cooking pots. Put each finding in a few words.
- Hint 2
How do the distance from the coast and the local salt survey affect what you can infer from the pot residues?
Step-by-step
Find the smallest supported conclusion
Step 1Start with the residues
Inside the pots, researchers found cubic halite crystals consistent with sea salt and lipids characteristic of marine fish, or fish fats. Both finds point to materials from the sea. What kind of ending does This evidence most strongly suggests that call for? We need a conclusion from the finds, so let's connect them with the settlement's location.
- Step 2
Join the finds to the setting
Why does the location matter? The settlement was roughly 100 kilometers from the nearest coastline, and surveys report no natural salt deposits in the region. The surveys don't give us a local salt source, and the fish traces also link the inland settlement to the sea. Let's predict the smallest conclusion: materials from the sea reached this inland community. The clues don't show how the residents got these materials or how much of their diet came from the sea.
- Step 3
Keep the conclusion small
Which ending stays within the clues? The claim traveled to the coast each winter adds a journey and a season. The phrase preferred sea salt says which salt they liked, while lacked access to freshwater fish claims they couldn't get freshwater fish, which the passage never reports. The ending obtained some coastal resources says only that materials from the sea reached the residents, and some doesn't say they relied on those materials. Choice D.