Task description

You will be provided with two lists. In most cases, one list contains a small number of causes and the other list contains a larger number of effects. The task is to find the effect which arose from (matches) each cause. To complete this task well you will need to understand clearly what the words 'cause' and 'effect' mean.

What is being tested is your ability to:

• understand cause and effect relationships
• understand gist and paraphrase
• skim for information

How to approach questions which ask you to match causes and effects

Step 1: Read the instructions carefully.

Step 2: Look at the table and decide which list you should work from. In most cases it would be most efficient to work from the shorter list (usually the causes).

Step 3: Read the first cause.

Step 4: Briefly familiarise yourself with the effects list. Which effects seem possible at this stage?

Step 5: Skim the reading text to find the section which discusses the first cause.

Step 6: Read that section of the reading text carefully to find the effect.

Step 7: When you have found the effect in the reading passage, refer back to the effects list and select the one which best paraphrases the information in the reading text. If none of the effects listed seem to match, then keep reading the text, as it is not unusual for causes to have more than one effect.