CRITICAL REASONING/CAUSE AND EFFECT REASONING

When examining events, people naturally seek to explain why things happened. This search often results in cause and effect reasoning.

 Basically casualty occurs when one event is said to make another occur. The cause is the event that makes the other occur; the effect is the event that follows from the cause. Thus, the cause must occur before the effect and the effect always happens at some point of time after the cause 

The questions on cause and effect reasoning are mainly designed to decide on ability to analyse a pair of given statements and to correlate them in terms of cause and effect 5 possibilities may arise:

I. the fact in the first statement is the effect of that mentioned in the second statement i.e., the second statement expresses the cause that leads to the condition mentioned in the first;

II. The contents of the first statement form the direct cause of the result discussed in the second statement.

III. Both the statements express generalized results that may not be backed by any specific cause but may influence certain other factors.

IV. Both the statements are independent and may be explained as effects of different independent causes.

V. The effects in both the given statements may be caused or triggered by a third unmentioned event which may thus be called the common cause of the given events.

EXERCISE

DIRECTIONS: In each of the following questions, two statements number I and II are given. There may be cause and effect relationship between the two statements. These two statements may be independent causes without having any relationship. Read both the statements in each question and mark your answer accordingly.

Give answer (a) if statement I is the cause and statement II is its effect;

Give answer (b) if statement II is the cause and statement I is its effect.

Give answer (c) if both the statements I and II are independent causes.

Give answer (d) if both the statements I and two are effects of independent causes.

Give answer (e) if both the statements I and II are effects of some common cause.

1) I: The local trader's Association urged all its members to close down their shops for a day to protest against the government's new tax policy.

II: Many shopkeepers decided to close down their shops for the day and gave a day off to their employees.

A

2) I: The prices of petroleum products dropped marginally last week.

II: The State Government reduced the tax on petroleum products last week.

3) I: The university authority has decided to conduct all terminal examinations in March/April every year to enable them to declare result in time.

II: There has been considerable delay in the clearing results in the past due to shortage of teachers evaluating the answer sheet of the examination conducted by the University.

4) I: The staff of Airport Authorities called off the strike they were observing in protest against privatisation.

II: the staff of Airport authorities went on strike anticipating a threat to their jobs.

5) I: Many people visited the religious place during the weekend.

II: few people visited the religious place during the with this number a people visiting a place during the weekdays.

6) I: The price of vegetables have been increased considerably during this summer.

II: There is tremendous increase in the temperature during the summer thereby damaging crops greatly.

7) I: police restorted the lathi- charge to disperse the unlawful gathering of large number of people.

II: The citizens forum called a general strike in protest against the police atrocities.

8) I: it is the aim of the city's Civic authority to get the air pollution reduced by 20% in the next two months.

II: The number of asthama cases in the city is constantly increasing.

9) I: The police authority has recently caught a group of house breakers.

II: the citizens group in the locality of started night vigil in the area.

10) I: The university authority has instructed all the colleges under its jurisdiction to ban use of all phones inside the college premises.

II: Majority of the teachers of the colleges signed a joint petition to the university complaining the disturbances caused by cell phone ringtones inside the classroom.

11) I: The Government has recently fixed the fees for professional courses offered by the unaided institutions which are much lower than the fees charged last year.

II: The parents of the aspiring students launched a severe agitation last year protesting against the high fees charged by unaided institutions.

12) I: Large number of people living in the low lying areas have been evacuated during the last few days to safer places.

II: The government has rushed in relief supplies to the people living in the affected areas.

13) I: The performance of most of the students in final exam of class X in the School run by the government was excellent.

II: Many teachers of the Government schools left the school and joined private schools.

14) I: Majority of the citizens in the locality belong to higher income group.

II: The sales in the local super market or comparatively much higher than in other localities.

15) I: There is a considerable reduction in the number of people affected by water borne diseases in city A during this rainy season.

II: The government has opened new Civil hospitals in City A in the beginning of the Year.

16) I: The literacy rate in the district has been increasing for the last 4 years.

II: The district Administration has conducted extensive training programme for the workers involved in the literacy drive.

17) I: Most of the steel producing companies in the country have made considerable profit during the last financial year.

II: Many Asian countries have been importing huge quantities of Steel from India.

18) I: Rural and semi urban areas in the country have been suffering due to load shedding for quite some time.

II: if the Government is not able to overcome the power crisis, load shedding will be extended even to the urban areas.

19) I: The employees of the biggest bank in the country have given an infinite strike call starting from third the next month.

II: The employees of the central government have withdrawn their week long demonstrations.

20) I: The school authority has asked the x Std. students to attend special classes to be conducted on Sundays.

II: The parents of the X Std. sudents have withdrawn their wards from attending private tuitions conducted on Sundays.

21) I: The farmers have decided against selling their kharif crops to the Government agencies.

II: The Government has reduced the procurement price of kharif crops starting from last month to the next 6 months.

22) I: The government has decided to make all the information related to primary education available to the general public.

II: In the past, the general public did not have access to all these information related to primary education.

23) I: There is sharp decline in the production of oilseed this year.

II: The Government has decided to increase the import quantum of edible oil.

24) I: The life today is too fast, demanding and full variety in all aspects which at times leads to stressful situations.

II: Number of suicide cases among teenagers is on increase.

25) I: there is unprecendant increase in the number of young unemployed in comparison to the previous year.

II: A large number of candidates submitted applications against sn advertisement for the post of manager issued by a bank.

26) I: All the schools in the area had to be kept closed for the most part of the week.

II: Many parents have withdrawn their children from the local schools.

27) I: There has been a high increase in the incidents of atrocities against women in the city during the past few months.

II: The police authority has been unable to nab the culprits who are committing crime against women.

28) I: The prices of petrol and diesel in the domestic market have remained unchanged for the past few months.

II: The crude oil prices in the international market have gone up substantially in the last few months.

29) I: The local cooperative credit society has decided to stop giving loans to farmers with immediate effect.

II: A large number of credit society members have withdrawn major part of their deposits from the credit society.

30) I: The government has imported large quantities of sugar as per trade agreement with other countries.

II: The prices of sugar in the domestic market of fallens sharply in the recent months.

31) I: India has surpassed the value of tea exports this year all the earlier years due to an increase in demand for quality tea in the European market.

II: There is an increase in demand of coffee in the domestic market during the last two years.

32) I: There is increase in water level of all the water tanks supplying drinking water to the city during last fortnight.

II: Most of the trains were cancelled last week due to water logging on the tracks.

33) I: Majority of the students in the college expressed their opinion against the college authority's decision to break away from the university and becomes autonomous.

II: The university authorities have expressed their inability to provide grants to its constituent colleges.

34) I: The private medical colleges have increased the tuition fees in the current year by 200 percent over the last year's fees to meet the expenses.

II: The Government Medical Colleges have not increased their fees inspite of price escalation.

35) I: The Reserve Banks of India has recently put the restrictions on few small banks in the country.

II: the small banks in the private and cooperative sector in India are not in a position to withstand the competitions of the bigger in the public sector.