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CHAPTER 5
INFERENCES AND MAIN IDEAS
Logical and Illogical Inferences
Logical Inferences
• follow from or are based on what’s said in the paragraph.
• do not favor the reader’s experience or knowledge over the
author’s words.
• are not contradicted by any statements appearing in the
paragraph.
• do not divert the reader from the author’s intended meaning.
Illogical Inferences
• give more weight to the reader’s feelings than they do the
author’s words.
• are based on a few stray words rather than several different
sentences.
• are likely to be contradicted by one or more statements
appearing in the paragraph.
• are likely to lead readers far from the author’s intended
meaning.
© Houghton Mifflin Company
EXERCISE 7 Identifying the Implied Main Idea
EXAMPLE Increasing numbers of Americans are turning to hypnosis to stop smoking or to lose weight. Similarly, arthritis sufferers are
using acupuncture, an ancient method of Chinese healing, to gain
some relief from their pain. Cancer patients have also been using
nontraditional medical treatments like creative visualization to fight
their disease. Some cancer sufferers, for example, imagine themselves as huge and powerful sharks. They imagine their cancer cells
as much smaller fish that easily fall prey to the larger and more dangerous sharks. Even some businesses are supporting nontraditional
medical treatments and encouraging employees to use meditation in
order to ward off migraine headaches and high blood pressure.
Implied Main Idea a. In the United States, an ever-growing number of people are turn-
ing to nontraditional medical treatments that often do more
harm than good.
Copyright © Laraine Flemming. All rights reserved.
DIRECTIONS Read each paragraph. Then circle the letter of the
more logical implied main idea. Note: Make sure that the answer you
choose fits the criteria for a logical inference.