Question

those tests were constructed around items like fill - in - the - blank sentence completion, such as \even though tom was ____, mary thought he was ____.\ and the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, \even though tom was foolish, mary thought he was ridiculous.\ well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what tom could have been and what mary might have thought of him. so i never did well on tests like that.
what can be inferred from the excerpt?
tom believes that achievement tests should include a wider variety of fill - in - the - blank questions
tom believes that achievement tests should be constructed by published authors of fiction
tom believes that achievement tests give inadequate measurements of language ability
tom believes that achievement tests give inflated measurements of language ability

Explanation:

The excerpt describes fill-in-the-blank tests with overly narrow "correct" answers (e.g., linking "foolish" to "ridiculous" as the only valid pair) despite broader possible logical connections. The speaker’s poor performance and the mother’s note about few actual limitations imply the tests fail to capture the full range of language ability. This aligns with the idea that the tests give inadequate measurements of language ability.

Answer:

Tom believes that achievement tests give inadequate measurements of language ability.