Test Questions on Cause and Effect Relationships in Reading

🔍 Quick Study Guide: Understanding Cause and Effect

Understanding cause and effect relationships is fundamental to strong reading comprehension. It helps you grasp the logical flow of ideas and the connections between events or actions within a text.

• 💡 What is a Cause? The reason why something happened. It's the action or event that makes something else occur.
• 📚 What is an Effect? The result or outcome of a cause. It's what happened because of a previous action or event.
• 🧐 Identifying Relationships: Look for logical connections. Ask yourself: "Why did this happen?" (Cause) and "What was the result of this?" (Effect).
• 🔑 Common Signal Words: These words often indicate a cause-effect relationship:
  • ➡️ For Causes: because, since, due to, as a result of, on account of, consequently, for this reason, if...then.
  • ⬅️ For Effects: so, therefore, as a result, consequently, thus, hence, in order to, leads to, results in, impact, outcome.
• 🎯 Importance: Recognizing these relationships helps you understand plot developments, character motivations, scientific processes, historical events, and persuasive arguments more deeply.

📝 Practice Quiz: Cause and Effect Relationships

1. When a character in a story cries because they are sad, what is the cause?
   A) The character's crying
   B) The character's sadness
   C) The story itself
   D) The reader's emotion
2. Due to heavy rain, the soccer game was canceled. What is the effect in this sentence?
   A) Heavy rain
   B) The soccer game
   C) The game was canceled
   D) Due to
3. Which of the following is most likely the cause if the effect is "The student received a high grade"?
   A) The student watched TV all night.
   B) The student studied diligently for the test.
   C) The student skipped class.
   D) The student forgot their textbook.
4. If the cause is "The sun set," what is a likely effect?
   A) The birds started singing.
   B) The sky became dark.
   C) The temperature increased.
   D) Flowers began to bloom.
5. In the sentence, "Since the alarm clock didn't go off, I was late for school," which word signals a cause-effect relationship?
   A) didn't
   B) off
   C) Since
   D) late
6. "Maria forgot to water her plants for a week. As a result, they began to wilt and turn brown." What is the cause in this scenario?
   A) The plants began to wilt.
   B) Maria forgot to water her plants.
   C) The plants turned brown.
   D) For a week.
7. A factory started releasing more pollution into the local river. Over time, the fish population in the river significantly decreased. What is the most probable cause for the decrease in fish?
   A) The factory hired new employees.
   B) People stopped fishing in the river.
   C) The increased pollution from the factory.
   D) The river became wider.