How do we know what we know? Scientists, judges, detectives and careful readers all use the same small set of words for testing ideas: you start with a hypothesis or a premise, gather empirical evidence, see whether others corroborate it, and decide whether the result is conclusive. These words turn up constantly in the science and history passages of reading tests.
Key idea
Starting points: hypothesis (an idea to test), premise (a statement you reason from). Kinds of evidence: empirical (observed, measured), anecdotal (stories). Backing it up: corroborate, substantiate, validate. Reaching an answer: deduce (reason it out), extrapolate (extend beyond the data), conclusive (settles it).
The ten words
Common mistake
anecdotal evidence is real stories, but too few or too unrepresentative to prove a pattern. extrapolate reaches beyond the data; interpolate fills in between data points.
| step | word | example |
|---|---|---|
| an idea to test | hypothesis | Music helps plants grow. |
| a starting statement | premise | All the plants got the same water. |
| the kind of evidence | empirical / anecdotal | measured heights / “Mine seemed taller.” |
| backing it up | corroborate, substantiate, validate | A second class gets the same result. |
| reasoning to an answer | deduce | So the music made the difference. |
| going past the data | extrapolate | A year of music would double their height? |
| settled | conclusive | Many careful tests agree; no doubt remains. |
Anecdotal evidence is real (the stories happened), but there are too few stories, or they are too hand-picked, to prove a pattern. Extrapolate reaches beyond the data you have; interpolate fills in between data points you already have.