Use nearby details as evidence to justify the inference.
核心知识
The strongest inferences are built on specific details close to the blank—nearby evidence matters more than general impressions of the passage.
深入理解
When a passage ends with a blank, the most important clues are usually in the last two or three sentences before it. These sentences set up the logical move the blank needs to complete. Students who rely on a vague sense of the whole passage often get tricked by answers that match the topic but miss the specific point.
Think of it like a jigsaw puzzle. The correct piece doesn't just match the picture's overall color scheme—it has to fit the exact shape of the gap. The "shape" comes from the details immediately surrounding the blank: a specific statistic, a contrast word like "however," a cause-and-effect chain.
After reading the full passage, re-read the final 1–2 sentences before the blank. Ask yourself: what specific fact or relationship do these sentences establish? The correct answer will connect directly to that fact or relationship, not to a general theme from earlier in the passage.
分步讲解
- Read the whole passage for overall context.
- Re-read the 1–2 sentences immediately before the blank with extra care.
- Identify the specific detail, comparison, or relationship those sentences establish.
- For each answer choice, check: does it connect to that specific nearby detail, or does it only relate to the passage's general topic?
- Choose the answer that directly extends or completes the logic of the nearby evidence.
常见误解
- Relying on the passage's opening sentence to pick an answer when the key evidence is near the end—the last sentences before the blank carry the most weight.
- Choosing an answer that matches the topic of the passage but doesn't connect to the specific detail or relationship the final sentences set up.
- Ignoring numerical details or specific comparisons near the blank that narrow the range of valid conclusions.
示例解析
Art historian David Chen has challenged the conventional view that the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer worked in isolation. Chen notes that Vermeer lived in Delft, a city with an active community of painters, and that municipal records show Vermeer served as head of the local painters' guild twice during the 1660s. Furthermore, recent pigment analysis has revealed that Vermeer and at least three other Delft painters used an identical, unusual blue pigment available from only one local supplier. Taken together, this evidence suggests that ______
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