Inferences 4

Years ago mothers couldn't always watch the tiny children who were just learning to walk.  They tied a big soft pillow around the child's middle.  This was called a "pudding."  No matter how often the baby fell, he couldn't get hurt.  You can infer that:

• mothers didn't like their little children
• mothers had a lot to do
• many children never learned to walk

Not all animals help old animals.  Some animals drive the old or sick relatives away or even kill them.  Young elephants have been known to feed blind old elephants who can't find food.  Pictures have been taken of young elephants actually putting food into an old elephant's mouth.  You can infer that:

• some young animals are kind
• all young animals are cruel
• many elephants go blind

Can you picture a coin so big that you can hardly carry it?  The country of Sweden had such a coin over two hundred years ago.  It was two feet long and one foot wide.  The coin weighed thirty-one pounds.  Two of these coins couldn't fit in:

• a bank
• a purse
• a room

Rain is the biggest danger to baby birds.  During rainy weather the parents have to leave the nest in search of food.  The baby birds are left uncovered.  The babies get chilled.  Thousands have been known to die during long rainstorms.  Most of the time baby birds are covered mainly:

• by the trees
• by the nest
• by their mothers and fathers

It is not difficult for fish living in deep waters to find food.  When shallow-water fish die, some of them sink to deeper levels or even to the bottom.  There is a never-ending rain of food from above.  You can infer that:

• all dead fish sink to the bottom
• all dead fish sink just a little bit
• some dead fish don't sink

Very few early Americans used rugs on their floors.  Instead, the floors were painted with colorful designs.  Some home owners covered their floors with tiny drops of paint.  Other Americans painted canvas "carpets," to make the floors look like costly rugs. Rugs for many early Americans were probably:

• too expensive
• of little interest
• used to hide fine wooden floors

There is a strange little worm in South America called the railroad worm. This little animal looks as if it is divided into parts.  A light is on each part.  When we look at the worm at night, it looks like a number of lighted train windows.  The railroad worm must also look somewhat like:

• a street light
• an automobile
• a lighted bus

It is said that a million matches can be made from one tree.  It is also said that one match can destroy a million trees.  This has happened.  One careless person with one little match has destroyed in a very short time what nature has taken many years to make.  You can infer that:

• one match can do more good than one tree
• one tree can do more good than one match
• one match can do a great deal of harm

The number of people is growing very fast.  Every minute there are eighty-three more people on earth.  Every hour there are five thousand added.  Every day there are 120,000 more faces.  Each year there are twenty-five million more people in the world.  In four years there will be:

• 20,000 more people
• 100 million more people
• 400 million people

Not all birds have the same number of feathers.  The little hummingbird may have about fifteen hundred during the summer.  A bigger bird such as a robin may have twice that many feathers.  Large birds may have twenty thousand feathers or more.  The number of feathers must have something to do:

• with the bird's size
• with the bird's age
• with the weather