Free Year 7 Structure of ideas — cause/effect,... Practice | Skillo

Question 1 — Easy

Read the passage below, then answer the question. In 1851, the discovery of gold near Bathurst in New South Wales triggered one of the most dramatic population shifts in Australian history. Within months, tens of thousands of people — from Britain, China, the United States, and across the Pacific — flooded into the colony in search of fortune. The established social order was disrupted almost overnight: servants abandoned their employers, skilled tradesmen left their workshops, and entire towns were deserted as residents rushed to the goldfields. Colonial authorities, alarmed by the chaos, imposed a miner's licence fee that proved deeply unpopular and would eventually contribute to the Eureka Stockade uprising in 1854. According to the passage, what was one major consequence of the gold rush on colonial society?

Answer: Option B is correct — The passage explicitly describes how the gold rush disrupted the established social order — servants left employers, tradesmen abandoned workshops, and towns were deserted — illustrating social and economic upheaval.

Question 2 — Medium

Read the passage below, then answer the question. Noctilucent clouds are among the highest clouds in Earth's atmosphere, forming at altitudes of around 80 kilometres. They are composed of ice crystals that form on specks of meteoric dust — tiny particles left behind by meteors burning up in the atmosphere. These clouds are only visible during twilight in summer, when the sun has dipped below the horizon for ground-level observers but still illuminates the clouds from below. In Australia, they are occasionally spotted from southern states during December and January. Their electric blue and silver appearance has inspired both scientific curiosity and artistic wonder. Why are noctilucent clouds only visible during twilight rather than at other times of day?

Answer: Option D is correct — The passage explains that the clouds are visible at twilight because 'the sun has dipped below the horizon for ground-level observers but still illuminates the clouds from below,' which is the key condition for seeing them.

Question 3 — Hard

Read the passage below, then answer the question. When Priya's school introduced a wellbeing program requiring students to rate their daily mood on a five-point scale, most of her classmates complained. Priya didn't mind the ratings, but she noticed something odd: on the days when she recorded a three — meaning neutral — she often felt fine by the time she finished writing the brief note required alongside the rating. Her friend Jess dismissed this as coincidence. But Priya suspected that the act of writing down an explanation for feeling neutral forced her to search for things that were genuinely all right, shifting her attention in a way that simply feeling neutral did not. What hypothesis does Priya form based on her observation?

Answer: Option D is correct — Priya hypothesises that writing an explanation for a neutral mood 'forced her to search for things that were genuinely all right', suggesting the writing process itself shifted her attention positively and improved her mood.