INFERENCE & DEDUCTION

We have to teach these 'reading skills' as if they are different (as though? as if? !?!?). But they aren't, really.

Anyway, today I managed to extract a definition. 'To infer' means to understand from given, but incomplete, information. 'To deduce' means to arrive at an understanding from available information.

The dictionary definition of 'Infer' contains the word 'deduce', and vice versa. Most unhelpful.

Spring

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

WEATHER FORECAST

A couple of evenings ago, during the current "cold snap", I saw a weather bulletin on ITV. It was dumbed down to primary-school level. In place of meteorological charts or even a map with stickers of cloud-/sun-symbols, or language half-way subject-specific, the on-screen captions stated that "Jack Frost will be visiting us again". Which was fairly obvious anyway, from the air temperature.

Children probably aren't familiar with the concept of Jack Frost, so it'd be useless for them, and it would surely just annoy the majority of adults. At least we don't pay for ITV, so I can't launch into a curmudgeonly diatribe against the cost of the license fee.