Chapter 4 - TFY - Inferences - Exercise

“TFY”: Chapter 4 – Inferences – Exercise

Drawing Inferences from Evidence – Exercise – Page 108:
Read the following scenarios and think of three inferences you could make to explain each situation:

1. Your neighbors have regular habits and spend a lot of time at home. One day you notice that no lights have appeared in their house in the evenings for at least a week.
1. The neighbors are on vacation.
2. The neighbors are getting home late from somewhere like work all week.
3. Maybe the neighbors are going to bed early… maybe someone is sick.

2. In an airport waiting room, you sit down next to a nun wearing a dark blue dress, starched white collar, and a starched white headdress. You notice she is reading Playboy magazine.
1. Maybe there are good articles in there she likes to read.
2. Maybe she found it someone and had nothing else to read.
3. Maybe that is her “sin” and she likes Playboy.

3. Your child, age four, usually has a good appetite. However, she says no this morning when you offer her a dish of applesauce.
1. Maybe her stomach is upset.
2. Maybe she is full and just not hungry.
3. Maybe she dislikes applesauce.

4. You are on a Greyhound bus. A man get son and sits beside you. He is carrying an expensive briefcase, although he is shabbily dressed, unshaven, and perspiring heavily. When you suggest he place his briefcase on the rack overhead, he refuses, saying he doesn’t mind holding it in his lap.
1. Maybe that was a gift of his and he prefers to hold onto it.
2. Maybe he was running late and did not have time to straighten out his attire.
3. Maybe he stole that briefcase and ran to catch the bus.

5. You are looking in your wife’s closet for your missing shoe, and you notice a new and expensive man’s sports jacket hanging there.
1. Maybe your wife bought that for you as a gift.
2. Maybe it belongs to your wife’s friend who purchased it for their husband as a surprise and your wife is holding onto it.
3. Maybe it belongs to your wife’s lover.

6. After a class you go to see your professor about an error in addition on your test score. You explain to him respectfully that 100 minus 18 is 82, not 79. He tells you to get the hell out of his office.
1. Maybe you offended him by pointing out his error.
2. Maybe he was having a really bad day and took it out on you.
3. Maybe he is just not a very nice person and does not care about the error.

7. You are driving through a valley on a spring morning in a heavy rainstorm. You are on a two-lane highway, and you notice that only about half the cars that pass you head-on have their lights on.
1. Maybe people think since it is day light, why have their car head lights on.
2. Maybe people forgot to turn their lights on.
3. Maybe the people with their cars light off don’t think it is important to drive with your head lights on in a rainstorm.