Draw logical conclusions that are strongly supported by, but not explicitly stated in, a passage.
19 original inferences questions in the SAT Ranker bank, with instant scoring and an Elo-based rank once you sign up. Below are a few free samples with full explanations.
Communities of tube worms, crabs, and shrimp thrive around hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, thousands of meters below any sunlight. Chemosynthetic bacteria there convert vent chemicals into energy, forming the base of a food web entirely independent of photosynthesis.
Which inference is best supported by the passage?
The passage explains the food web there runs on chemosynthesis from vent chemicals rather than photosynthesis, supporting the inference that this ecosystem's energy doesn't depend on sunlight.
Researchers studying urban foxes noticed that populations in cities with more pedestrian-only zones displayed less nocturnal activity than those in cities dominated by vehicle traffic, foraging comfortably even in daylight hours in the former.
Which inference is best supported by the passage?
The contrast between fox behavior in pedestrian versus vehicle-heavy areas suggests traffic-related risk, not daylight itself, shapes when foxes are active, supporting the second choice.
A widely used open-source encryption library was found to contain a critical vulnerability that had gone unnoticed for over a decade, despite being freely available for anyone to inspect. The bug was eventually discovered not by a large security firm but by a single volunteer auditing the code in his spare time.
Which inference is best supported by the passage?
The vulnerability existed for over a decade despite being open to inspection, showing that mere availability of code doesn't guarantee prompt discovery of flaws.
Octopuses can alter both the color and the texture of their skin within a fraction of a second, matching not just the hue but the physical bumpiness of nearby coral or rock, despite octopuses themselves being colorblind.
Which inference is best supported by the passage?
Since the passage states octopuses are colorblind yet still match color and texture, it supports the inference that their camouflage doesn't depend on directly perceiving color.
Two nearby vineyards planted the same grape variety in the same year. The first, on a south-facing slope, consistently ripens its grapes about two weeks earlier than the second, which lies on a shaded valley floor, even though the two sites receive nearly identical rainfall.
Which choice most logically completes the text?
With the same variety, year, and rainfall, the remaining difference is the sites — a sunny south-facing slope versus a shaded valley floor — so sunlight is the likely cause of the earlier ripening. The passage rules out variety and rainfall as the difference and says nothing about wine quality.