To form an inference in informative texts, what two sources do you combine?

• A. What you know + information from text
• B. Your imagination + text
• C. Only the text
• D. Only what you know

Answer: (A)

Inferring in informative texts happens when you combine what you already know with the information the text provides to reach a conclusion that isn’t stated outright. Your background knowledge gives you context, patterns, and real-world connections that help you interpret the clues the author shares. The text supplies evidence, data, examples, and explicit details you can use to support your conclusion. If you rely only on the text, you might miss deeper connections; if you rely only on what you know, you could overlook new evidence the text presents; relying on imagination would lack the necessary support from the text. So, the two sources you fuse are what you know and information from the text. For example, if a report describes a decrease in bee populations and mentions habitat loss, your knowledge about how habitat and pesticides affect bees helps you infer possible causes beyond what’s explicitly stated.