An inference question about a speaker’s belief tests what the speaker’s words suggest, not what you can prove yourself. Read the words leading into the blank so you know whose view you need. Then connect what happened with how that person explains it. Put those clues in a few words and predict the smallest conclusion they support. Stay within the speaker’s own reasoning, because a possible explanation isn’t enough unless the text points to it.
Hints
- Hint 1
The blank asks what Ortiz believes. Look for how Ortiz explains the visitor numbers in the quotation.
- Hint 2
Connect the report and the quotation. What link does Ortiz make between what changed at the library and what happened afterward?
Step-by-step
Connect the facts to Ortiz’s explanation
Step 1Put the facts in order
The local library extended its evening hours, and Ortiz reports that monthly visitor numbers have increased by nearly 40 percent since the change. The blank asks what Ortiz believes about these facts. What happened first? The library began closing three hours later, and the rise in visits followed that change.
- Step 2
Read the cause Ortiz gives
How does Ortiz explain the rise? The quotation says that closing later has made the library more accessible to our community. That wording says the longer hours helped people use the library, so Ortiz treats the new hours as a cause. We can predict that Ortiz credits the new schedule for the extra visits, without deciding whether the passage proves the cause.
- Step 3
Match the stated belief
The phrase primarily caused by the extended hours names the new schedule as the main reason for the increase. Primarily means mainly, so it doesn't rule out other factors. That matches Ortiz’s confident explanation of the rise in visitors and completes the belief the blank asks for. Choice A.