Question
Getting committed proved rather easy, even if neither Bly nor her editors had a clear plan of getting her released once the story was filed. She took a room at a cheap boarding house, “Temporary Home for Females, No. 84 Second Avenue,” under the name Bly Brown and began questioning and imitating the women who seemed most insane to her. Soon enough, it was Bly who was deemed crazy. The matron of the house enlisted a few cops to escort Bly to the Essex Market Police Courtroom, where an impatient judge named Duffy pronounced her insane and ordered her to the famed insane ward at Bellevue Hospital, the city’s largest charitable hospital. © NewsHour Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved. Question Use the excerpt from the “How Nellie Bly went undercover to expose abuse of the mentally ill” article to answer the question. Which of the following would be an invalid inference to make about this excerpt?
Answers
GPT-4o mini
To determine an invalid inference about the excerpt, we can analyze some possible inferences one might draw:
1. **Nellie Bly was actually mentally ill.** - This is an invalid inference because the text indicates that Bly was pretending to be insane for the purpose of conducting her investigation.
2. **Bly planned her release from the mental institution before she entered.** - This is also an invalid inference, as the text states that neither Bly nor her editors had a clear plan for her release once the story was filed.
3. **The matron and police acted correctly in determining Bly's mental state.** - This could be seen as a valid inference, as the excerpt suggests that their actions were typical of the time and context.
4. **Bly successfully impersonated someone who was mentally ill.** - This is a valid inference based on her actions of questioning and imitating the women she observed.
Based on these evaluations, the most clearly invalid inference is:
**Nellie Bly was actually mentally ill.**
This inference contradicts the purpose of her undercover investigation, where she was instead portraying someone without mental illness in order to expose the conditions faced by those who truly were.
1. **Nellie Bly was actually mentally ill.** - This is an invalid inference because the text indicates that Bly was pretending to be insane for the purpose of conducting her investigation.
2. **Bly planned her release from the mental institution before she entered.** - This is also an invalid inference, as the text states that neither Bly nor her editors had a clear plan for her release once the story was filed.
3. **The matron and police acted correctly in determining Bly's mental state.** - This could be seen as a valid inference, as the excerpt suggests that their actions were typical of the time and context.
4. **Bly successfully impersonated someone who was mentally ill.** - This is a valid inference based on her actions of questioning and imitating the women she observed.
Based on these evaluations, the most clearly invalid inference is:
**Nellie Bly was actually mentally ill.**
This inference contradicts the purpose of her undercover investigation, where she was instead portraying someone without mental illness in order to expose the conditions faced by those who truly were.