Reading Inference

Respuesta correcta: A) The need was obvious to the residents before the official programme existed.

• A) The need was obvious to the residents before the official programme existed.Correct! The timing of the tanks shows the residents recognised the problem on their own.
• B) The residents had been told what to do by the committee.The phrase says the opposite: nobody had suggested it at the time.
• C) The programme failed because nobody used the tanks.The text says the practice spread, which contradicts a failure.
• D) The committee was created after the tanks were bought.The tanks predate the committee, which the wording makes explicit.

Respuesta correcta: B) old and fundamental to the life of the place.

• A) dangerous and should be closed immediately.The image does not convey danger; the wells are described as essential.
• B) old and fundamental to the life of the place.Correct! The image of bones conveys age and a supporting role, which is exactly the suggestion.
• C) recently built by the committee.The wells are ancient, so the image contradicts the idea that they are recent.
• D) the only source of income in the valley.The image suggests importance for survival, not for income.

Respuesta correcta: C) It based its decisions on evidence.

• A) It ignored the opinions of the residents.The text describes the opposite, since the rules were agreed with the residents.
• B) It changed the figures whenever it was convenient.Nothing in the text suggests that any figure was altered.
• C) It based its decisions on evidence.Correct! Recording the figures first shows that the decisions rested on evidence rather than on preference.
• D) It preferred intuition to measurement.The practice described is measurement, not intuition.

Respuesta correcta: D) To protect a small supply from evaporation or theft.

• A) To decorate the room for visitors.The text describes a problem of supply, not decoration.
• B) To keep the buckets out of reach of children at play.Keeping buckets out of reach would be about safety, and the text stresses the shortage.
• C) To store the buckets during a flood in the street.No flood is mentioned anywhere in the account.
• D) To protect a small supply from evaporation or theft.Correct! In a shortage, hiding the stored water protects it, which is the most likely reason.

Respuesta correcta: A) It was created by the national government.

• A) It was created by the national government.Correct! The text presents the committee as a local body and never attributes its creation to the national government.
• B) It meets on a fixed schedule.The fixed schedule is stated in the text.
• C) It reviews the agreements with the community.The reviews of agreements are exactly what the meetings are for.
• D) It is made up of residents of the town.Membership by residents is described when the committee is introduced.

Respuesta correcta: B) The infrastructure, not the people, was the decisive factor.

• A) The residents of those villages did not want to save water.The text does not blame the residents; it names the absence of tanks as the difference.
• B) The infrastructure, not the people, was the decisive factor.Correct! The contrast shows that the physical installations, not the attitudes of the people, decided the outcome.
• C) Those villages had more water than the others.The text implies those villages suffered more, so they did not have more water.
• D) The committee refused to help the villages without tanks.The text describes a technical limitation, not a refusal to help.

Respuesta correcta: C) To make the routine and the value of the water vivid.

• A) To prove that the pump was broken that morning.A sound at dawn shows activity, not a breakdown.
• B) To show that the villagers worked in a factory.A village pump is part of daily life and has nothing to do with a factory.
• C) To make the routine and the value of the water vivid.Correct! The image gives the reader a concrete sense of the routine and of what the water means to the people.
• D) To indicate that the village had too much water.The whole text is about scarcity, so the detail cannot signal abundance.

Respuesta correcta: D) Households felt the shortage in their budgets as well.

• A) The government stopped the sale of bottled water.The text says nothing about a prohibition on bottled water.
• B) Everyone in the region bought a pump.Buying a pump is mentioned as an option, not as something everyone did.
• C) The wells recovered during that year.The wells yielded less water during that period, so they did not recover.
• D) Households felt the shortage in their budgets as well.Correct! The price rise shows that the shortage also reached the economy of the households.

Respuesta correcta: A) Well designed for the community that has to follow them.

• A) Well designed for the community that has to follow them.Correct! The two qualities described, easy to remember and strict enough to be obeyed, show careful design.
• B) Too complicated for the people who wrote them.The text says the rules were simple, not complicated.
• C) Ignored by everyone after the first month.The text says they were respected, which is the opposite of being ignored.
• D) Imposed without the agreement of the residents.The rules were agreed in a public meeting, so they were not imposed without consent.

Respuesta correcta: B) The lack of water was one of the reasons they moved away.

• A) They moved away to find better schools.The text says nothing about schools as a motive.
• B) The lack of water was one of the reasons they moved away.Correct! The departures coincide with the worst years of the shortage, so the water is a reasonable cause.
• C) They were forced to leave by the national government.No government action is mentioned, and the text presents the shortage as the cause.
• D) They left because the wells produced too much water.The wells produced less water, not more.

Respuesta correcta: C) The repair was slow and the water system fragile.

• A) The technician was careless with his time.The text reports a fact about the job, not an attitude of the technician.
• B) The pump was working perfectly well.A working pump would not need a day of attention.
• C) The repair was slow and the water system fragile.Correct! A whole day on one repair suggests a fragile system and a slow recovery.
• D) The village had more than one pump.The text mentions a single pump, so there is no evidence of others.

Respuesta correcta: D) It became less reliable over the recorded years.

• A) It increased steadily during the period described.A decline, not an increase, is what the records show.
• B) It never changed at all in the region.The text is concerned precisely with a change over the years.
• C) It is measured only in the capital city.The measurements concern the region, not one city.
• D) It became less reliable over the recorded years.Correct! The comparison across decades shows that rainfall became less dependable.

Respuesta correcta: A) Help the reader picture a structure much bigger than expected.

• A) Help the reader picture a structure much bigger than expected.Correct! The comparison with a building gives a sense of size, which a measurement would not convey as quickly.
• B) Show that tanks are made of wood.The material of the tank is not what the comparison conveys.
• C) Warn that roofs are dangerous to build on.The text warns about the shortage, not about the safety of roofs.
• D) Compare the tank with a school building.The comparison is with a house, not with a school.

Respuesta correcta: B) The tank was a serious financial sacrifice for them.

• A) The family had plenty of money to spare.The sale of an animal is the opposite of having money to spare.
• B) The tank was a serious financial sacrifice for them.Correct! Selling livestock to buy a tank shows a real sacrifice, not spare money.
• C) The tank was given away by the committee.The text says the family bought the tank, not that it was given away.
• D) The family had no livestock after that year.The text does not say they lost every animal, only the one they sold.

Respuesta correcta: C) The shortage interrupted the schooling of many children.

• A) The schools were better funded than before.The text says nothing about school funding.
• B) The region stopped teaching children altogether.Children kept attending, but less often, so schooling was not stopped.
• C) The shortage interrupted the schooling of many children.Correct! Fewer hours at school because of the walk to fetch water is a direct consequence described in the text.
• D) Attendance improved with the arrival of the tanks.The text presents the shortage as a barrier to schooling, not as an improvement.

Respuesta correcta: D) The community could not design its own arrangements.

• A) The older village had solved the same problem successfully.Adopting proven rules is a deliberate choice, not an inability to design any.
• B) The older village had no water at all.The older village used the rules precisely because it had water to manage.
• C) The new rules were written by a foreign organisation.The origin given is another village, not a foreign body.
• D) The community could not design its own arrangements.Correct! A set of rules that another village kept successfully was worth copying, which the wording implies.

Respuesta correcta: A) The committee was a real group of identifiable residents.

• A) The committee was a real group of identifiable residents.Correct! Naming real residents shows that the committee existed as a group of people.
• B) The committee met only once in fifty years.Nothing in the sentence suggests that the committee met only once.
• C) The members were appointed without election.The text does not say how the members were chosen.
• D) The text is a fictional story about imaginary people.The specific names indicate a documented account, not a fictional one.

Respuesta correcta: B) Show that the measures were cheap and affordable.

• A) Show that the capital ignored the problem.The text is not criticising the capital; the comparison is only about scale.
• B) Show that the measures were cheap and affordable.Correct! Comparing the cost to a familiar item shows the programme is cheap enough to be affordable.
• C) Show that the programme failed for lack of money.A low cost is presented as an advantage, not as the cause of failure.
• D) Show that the committee was dishonest.No dishonesty is suggested anywhere in the text.

Respuesta correcta: C) The measures can work if the community keeps following them.

• A) The region will never face another shortage.The text presents a risk, so it cannot promise that no shortage will return.
• B) The wells will be replaced by new ones next year.No replacement of the wells is announced in the text.
• C) The measures can work if the community keeps following them.Correct! The text ties the success of the measures to the community's continued cooperation.
• D) The committee will be dissolved once the tanks are full.The text presents the committee as permanent while the rules are in force.

Respuesta correcta: D) Close with an image that links the past to the present.

• A) Introduce the topic of the text for the first time.A closing paragraph cannot introduce a topic for the first time.
• B) Present evidence that the programme failed.The closing image is positive, so it does not present failure.
• C) Add a completely unrelated anecdote.The well is directly related to the water supply, so the anecdote is not unrelated.
• D) Close with an image that links the past to the present.Correct! Ending with an old well links the historical depth of the practice to the present programme.