Look for key words in the question to tell you exactly what information to look for in

C AUSE AND E FFECT Another common organizational pattern is cause and effect. A cause is a person or thing that makes some- thing happen creates an effect. An effect is an event or change created by an action or cause. A passage about cause explains why something took place. You might ask, for example, “What caused the Industrial Rev- olution?” A passage about effect, on the other hand, explains what happened after something took place. What happened as a result of the Industrial Revolution? How did it affect the economy? Daily life? Education? Just as certain key words indicate whether you’re comparing or contrasting, other key words indicate whether things are causes or effects. Here is a partial list of words and phrases that indicate cause and effect: WORDS INDICATING CAUSE: because of created by since caused by WORDS INDICATING EFFECT: therefore so hence consequently as a result H OW T HIS C AN H ELP Y OU ON THE TOEFL E XAM Familiarity with organizational patterns can help you in several ways as you prepare for and take the TOEFL exam. Once you recognize an organizational pattern, you can anticipate what’s ahead. This often makes it eas- ier to understand and remember what you read. It also makes it easier to find specific information in the text for those specific factdetail questions. When you know the structure of a passage, you can also make better decisions about where to insert new information. For example, read this passage: The current measure used to calculate poverty levels was introduced in 1963. At that time, the poverty line for a family of two adults and two children was about 3,100. In 1992, there were 36.9 million people, or 14.5 percent of the U.S. population, with incomes below the poverty line. 1 A proposed new way of measuring poverty levels would take into account the effects of work- related expenses such as transportation and child-care costs. 2 By including these costs, fewer people in families receiving cash welfare would fall under the poverty line while a greater percentage of people in working families would be categorized as poor. Specifically, people in families receiving cash welfare would make up 30 percent of the poor under the new measure, compared with 40 percent under the current measure. 3 In contrast, people in working families would make up 59 percent of the poor under the new measure, com- pared with 51 percent under the current measure. 4 – R E A D I N G C O M P R E H E N S I O N S K I L L S – 4 1