Drawing Inferences from Social Science or History Passages | Reading for ACT PDF Download

Example 1:
Adapted from The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)
Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they. How did this change come about? I do not know. What can make it legitimate? That question I think I can answer.
If I took into account only force, and the effects derived from it, I should say that "as long as a people is compelled to obey, and obeys, it does well; as soon as it can shake off the yoke, and shakes it off, it does still better; for, regaining its liberty by the same right as took it away, either it is justified in resuming it, or there was no justification for those who took it away." But the social order is a sacred right, which is the basis of all other rights. Nevertheless, this right does not come from nature and must therefore be founded on conventions. Before coming to that, I have to prove what I have just asserted.
THE FIRST SOCIETIES
THE most ancient of all societies, and the only one that is natural, is the family: even so, the children remain attached to the father only so long as they need him for their preservation. As soon as this need ceases, the natural bond is dissolved. The children, released from the obedience they owed to the father, and the father, released from the care he owed his children, return equally to independence. If they remain united, they continue so no longer naturally, but voluntarily; the family itself is then maintained only by convention.
Q.1. What is the natural bond?
(a) Between God and man
(b) Between faith and deliverance
(c) Between all people
(d) None of the other answers
(e) That between father and child

Correct answer is Option (e)

In context, the natural bond refers to the relationshiip with father and child.

Q.2. What are the chains the author refers to here?
(a) Chains of bad governments
(b) American emancipation
(c) Chains of good governments
(d) None of the other answers
(e) American slavery

Correct answer is Option (c)

The author uses the chains metaphor to evoke the oppression of bad governments.

Example 2:
Adapted from The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln (1863)
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war . . . testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated . . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate . . . we cannot consecrate . . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us ... that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion . . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain . . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom . . . and that government of the people . . . by the people . . . for the people . . . shall not perish from this earth.

Q.1. What is the overall tone of this passage?
(a) A depressed one
(b) A somber one
(c) An optimistic one
(d) None of the other answers
(e) A happy one

Correct answer is Option (b)

The passage is somber and solemn; the author and speaker is referring to war and death.

Q.2. What point in this war are we most likely in, given the information provided?
(a) No time related to a war
(b) The start of the war
(c) Before the war
(d) After the war
(e) None of the other answers

Correct answer is Option (e)

Since the author refers to fighting “thus far so nobly” we can infer that the country is already at war.

Q.3. What period of time and place can we infer the speaker is referring to?
(a) Civil wars in colonial Africa
(b) The American civil war, in the mid-nineteenth century
(c) Colonialism
(d) Civil wars between families
(e) None of the other answers

Correct answer is Option (b)

Given the date of the passage provided at the top, and the speaker’s language and references, we can infer it is the American Civil War.

Example 3:
Adapted from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792)
After considering the historic page, and viewing the living world with anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged to confess, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization, which has hitherto taken place in the world, has been very partial. I have turned over various books written on the subject of education, and patiently observed the conduct of parents and the management of schools; but what has been the result? a profound conviction, that the neglected education of my fellow creatures is the grand source of the misery I deplore; and that women in particular, are rendered weak and wretched by a variety of concurring causes, originating from one hasty conclusion. The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove, that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers that are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty; and the flaunting leaves, after having pleased a fastidious eye, fade, disregarded on the stalk, long before the season when they ought to have arrived at maturity. One cause of this barren blooming I attribute to a false system of education, gathered from the books written on this subject by men, who, considering females rather as women than human creatures, have been more anxious to make them alluring mistresses than rational wives; and the understanding of the sex has been so bubbled by this specious homage, that the civilized women of the present century, with a few exceptions, are only anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a nobler ambition, and by their abilities and virtues exact respect.
In a treatise, therefore, on female rights and manners, the works which have been particularly written for their improvement must not be overlooked; especially when it is asserted, in direct terms, that the minds of women are enfeebled by false refinement; that the books of instruction, written by men of genius, have had the same tendency as more frivolous productions; and that, in the true style of Mahometanism, they are only considered as females, and not as a part of the human species, when improvable reason is allowed to be the dignified distinction, which raises men above the brute creation, and puts a natural sceptre in a feeble hand.
Yet, because I am a woman, I would not lead my readers to suppose, that I mean violently to agitate the contested question respecting the equality and inferiority of the sex; but as the subject lies in my way, and I cannot pass it over without subjecting the main tendency of my reasoning to misconstruction, I shall stop a moment to deliver, in a few words, my opinion. In the government of the physical world, it is observable that the female, in general, is inferior to the male. The male pursues, the female yields—this is the law of nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favour of woman. This physical superiority cannot be denied—and it is a noble prerogative! But not content with this natural pre-eminence, men endeavour to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusement in their society.
Q. The author’s opinions about men can best be described as which of the following?
(a) Worried they oppress or keep women back
(b) Disdain
(c) None of the other answers
(d) Appreciation for their status as breadwinners
(e) Adoration and affection

Correct answer is Option (a)

The author is concerned in this passage that men hold women back and oppress them.

Example 4:
This is an excerpt from The U.S. Constitution (1787)
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.
Q.1. “[V]acancies” most nearly refers to which of the following?
(a) Vacancies in the framers of the Constitution
(b) None of the other answers
(c) “[V]acancies” most nearly refers to which of the following?
(d) Emptiness of political message
(e) A political vacancy

Correct answer is Option (e)

The term vacancy here refers to vacancies in political office.

Q.2. What kind of text is this?
(a) A legal one
(b) An epic poem
(c) A religious one
(d) None of the other answers
(e) A fundamentalist one

Correct answer is Option (a)

The tone and language of this text clearly implies that it is a legal document.

Example 5:
Adapted from Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson (1743–1786)
The College of William and Mary is the only public seminary of learning in this state. It was founded in the time of King William and Queen Mary, who granted to it 20,000 acres of land, and a penny a pound duty on certain tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland, which had been levied by the statute of 25 Car. 2. The assembly also gave it, by temporary laws, a duty on liquors imported, and skins and furs exported. From these resources it received upwards of 3000 l. communibus annis. The buildings are of brick, sufficient for an indifferent accommodation of perhaps an hundred students. By its charter it was to be under the government of twenty visitors, who were to be its legislators, and to have a president and six professors, who were incorporated. It was allowed a representative in the general assembly. Under this charter, a professorship of the Greek and Latin languages, a professorship of mathematics, one of moral philosophy, and two of divinity, were established. To these were annexed, for a sixth professorship, a considerable donation by Mr. Boyle of England, for the instruction of the Indians, and their conversion to Christianity. This was called the professorship of Brafferton, from an estate of that name in England, purchased with the monies given. The admission of the learners of Latin and Greek filled the college with children. This rendering it disagreeable and degrading to young gentlemen already prepared for entering on the sciences, they were discouraged from resorting to it, and thus the schools for mathematics and moral philosophy, which might have been of some service, became of very little. The revenues too were exhausted in accommodating those who came only to acquire the rudiments of science. After the present revolution, the visitors, having no power to change those circumstances in the constitution of the college which were fixed by the charter, and being therefore confined in the number of professorships, undertook to change the objects of the professorships. They excluded the two schools for divinity, and that for the Greek and Latin languages, and substituted others; so that at present they stand thus:
A Professorship for Law and Police
Anatomy and Medicine
Natural Philosophy and Mathematics
Moral Philosophy, the Law of Nature and Nations, the Fine Arts
Modern Languages
For the Brafferton
And it is proposed, so soon as the legislature shall have leisure to take up this subject, to desire authority from them to increase the number of professorships, as well for the purpose of subdividing those already instituted, as of adding others for other branches of science.
Q. What seems a likely reason for the author’s project?
(a) To convince others that Virginia is the only stable part of America
(b) To provide information to others who might want to come to Virginia
(c) To convince others that the American colonies are undeveloped
(d) To lie about his origins so they seem more impressive
(e) None of the other answers

Correct answer is Option (b)

The title of the project and descriptive manner indicates that the author is most concerned with providing a real history of Virginia from his perspective—to provide information to others.

Example 6:
This is an excerpt from A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, but Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself by Venture Smith (1798)
But Captain Hart was a white gentleman, and I a poor African, and therefore it was all right, and good enough for the black dog. I am now sixty nine years old. Though once straight and tall, measuring without shoes six feet one inch and an half, and every way well proportioned, I am now bowed down with age and hardship. My strength which was once equal if not superior to any man whom I have ever seen, is now enfeebled so that life is a burden, and it is with fatigue that I can walk a couple of miles, stooping over my staff. Other griefs are still behind; on account of which some aged people, at least, will pity me. My eyesight has gradually failed, till I am almost blind, and whenever I go abroad one of my grandchildren must direct my way; besides for many years I have been much pained and troubled with an ulcer on one of my legs. But amidst all my griefs and pains, I have many consolations; Meg, the wife of my youth, whom I married for love, and bought with my money, is still alive. My freedom is a privilege which nothing else can equal. Notwithstanding all the losses I have suffered by fire, by the injustice of knaves, by the cruelty and oppression of false-hearted friends, and the perfidy of my own countrymen whom I have assisted and redeemed from bondage, I am no possessed of more than two hundred acres of land, and three habitable dwelling houses. I gives me joy to think that I have and that I deserve so good a character, especially for truth and integrity.
Q. The tone of the passage can best be described as which of the following?
(a) Unhappy and angry
(b) None of the other answers
(c) Sad and overwrought
(d) Pleased and contented
(e) Intelligent and satisfied

Correct answer is Option (c)

The speaker uses language that clearly denotes he is sad with the current state of affairs and somewhat overwrought. He writes, for instance: “My strength . . . is now enfeebled” as well as “I have suffered by fire, by the injustice of knaves, by the cruelty and oppression of false-hearted friends.” It can be assumed from these examples that the speaker is sad in the passage.