RC inference question general confusion

[hutch27]

I think the main reason why i get inference questions wrong are because I don't refer back to the passage while doing them. It's difficult thought because many times the inferences are difficult to locate so I just scan through the answer choices trying to solve based on what I learned from my 1st read.

Maybe more practice will help but I feel as if solving these based on "strategies" is foolish.

For example. Question #22 in the OG 12th ed. is a very easy inference question. all the wrong answer choice are distortion of the facts. I was able to recodnize this merely because of how obvious these were and because of how all the wrong answer explicitly distorted details that were evident in the passage.

On the other hand, #20 in the same passage is much more difficult (although it's an easy question)

All the wrong answers are very vague , and the right answer is even more vague. I thought on inference questions the right answer isn't explicitly stated in the passage.

These are merely my thoughts and I need some help clarifying inference questions.

[Bill@VeritasPrep]

On CR inference questions, the correct answer goes beyond what is explicitly stated; in RC, that isn't always the case.

For me, the best way to approach it is to get rid of the obviously wrong answers, then spend some more time with the ones that could fit. In #20:

A does not work because the passage is about how tree snakes avoid circulatory failure.

C does not work because it is sea snakes that cannot counteract the pooling of blood.

D is true of sea snakes, not of tree snakes.

E does not work because it tells us that they do use muscle contractions to aid blood flow.

Really, B is the only thing that is true of tree snakes, and while it is pretty much explicitly stated (though you could argue that the passage does not discuss likelihoods while B ("less likely") does. The only criteria we have to satisfy on an inference question is 100% true, and B does that.