Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
A passage written for this example (its sentences are numbered)
According to the passage, why could the city barely send word to the outside world?A. The street trains and the elevated trains stopped running.(1) In March 1888, a blizzard dropped 21 inches of snow on Central Park over three days, and the wind piled it into drifts many feet high. (2) The street trains and the elevated trains stopped running, so milk and newspapers could not be delivered. (3) Telegraph and telephone wires were strung on poles above the streets, and the ice and snow broke most of them, so the city could barely send word to the outside world. (4) After the storm, companies began burying their wires under the streets, and the storm helped push the city toward building a subway.
B. The ice and snow broke most of the telegraph and telephone wires.
C. The city did not have telephones yet.
D. The New York Stock Exchange closed for two days.
- The question names an effect: the city could barely send word to the outside world. Find that effect in the passage first. It is at the end of sentence 3.
- Now look just before it for a cause word. Sentence 3 has one: so. What comes before so is the cause, and what comes after is the effect.
- Before so: the wires were strung on poles above the streets, and the ice and snow broke most of them. That is the cause, and it comes with a how: no wires, no messages. That is B.
- A is in the passage, but it is tied to a different effect. Sentence 2 says the trains stopped, so milk and newspapers could not be delivered. Keep each cause attached to its own effect.
- C contradicts the passage: sentence 3 speaks of telephone wires, so the city had telephones.
- D is true, but not in the passage. The Stock Exchange did close during the blizzard, but these four sentences never say so, and never tie it to the city being cut off. That is the true-fact trap from Skills Quiz 1.
Answer: B
Example 2
A passage written for this example (its sentences are numbered)
According to the passage, which was one reason more Americans turned against Prohibition?A. The Twenty-first Amendment ended Prohibition.(1) In January 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution made it against the law to make, sell, or transport alcoholic drinks in the United States. (2) This ban was called Prohibition. (3) Many people broke the law anyway, buying drinks in hidden bars called speakeasies, and gangs grew rich selling alcohol. (4) After the Great Depression began in 1929, more and more Americans turned against the ban. (5) They argued that making and selling beer and liquor again would create jobs, and that taxes on it would bring the government money it badly needed. (6) In December 1933, the Twenty-first Amendment ended Prohibition.
B. Legal beer and liquor would create jobs.
C. Women had won the right to vote in 1920.
D. Alcohol had become cheaper than ever.
- The effect in the question is that more Americans turned against the ban. Sentence 4 says this happened after the Great Depression began. After is a time word. It tells when, but not yet why.
- Read on for the reasons. Sentence 5 begins They argued that, and gives two: making and selling drinks again would create jobs, and taxes on them would bring the government money. Choice B names the first.
- Notice that the passage gives more than one reason. Big changes almost never have one cause. The question asks for one of them, so a choice that names one of the two reasons in sentence 5 is enough.
- A reverses the arrow. The Twenty-first Amendment came at the end, in 1933, as a result of people turning against the ban. A result cannot be the reason.
- C is true, but not in the passage. Women did win the vote in 1920, but the passage never mentions it or ties it to Prohibition.
- D is not in the passage. The passage says nothing about the price of alcohol.
Answer: B
Where this is taught: Skills Quiz 7, Cause and effect: First, the idea · Skills Quiz 7: the worked example · Skills Diagnostic, Part 7
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 1, Lesson 1: Determine Central Idea and Draw Conclusions · Map of the Terrain, topic 7: Cause and effect
The drill
Ten questions
How many:
Read what is in the box first. Then tap your answer; a few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Press Check my answers at the bottom.Read what is in the box first. Circle your answer; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.