Keep ambiguity when the text keeps it

1 · Learn

Original passage: At the bridge, Rafi stopped counting the windows. He had counted them every morning as a child, certain that a missed window would bring a bad day. Now half the houses were hidden behind scaffolding, and the river carried pieces of pale timber towards the bend. A woman in a yellow coat waved him away from the barrier. He raised the parcel to show why he had come, as if brown paper could explain an absence of twelve years. On the label, his aunt's address had been crossed out once and carefully written again. The woman shook her head. Rafi set the parcel on the dry part of the wall and took out his phone. For a long time he looked at the saved number. Then he pressed call. Behind him, a workman began to remove the first board from the bridge.

The parcel, crossed-out address and saved number suggest a difficult return, but the passage does not explain every event of the twelve-year absence. An inference should use those details while preserving uncertainty about the relationship.

A confident tone is not a substitute for evidence. The statement 'Rafi is returning after an absence' has direct support; a precise claim about why he left does not.

2 · Worked example

His hesitation before calling suggests emotional difficulty, but whether it is guilt, fear or another feeling remains open.

3 · Your turn

Give one supported inference about the call and one detail supporting it.

4 · Apply your learning

Write an interpretation that is specific about evidence and cautious about an unstated motive.