Review: Pointing The Arrow — IELTS Collocation: Use The Words That Belong Together

What You Should Now Control

Five things this chapter taught. Tick only what survives a sentence you write at speed.

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Tick what you can do right now

The two-second test

Sort the Whole Chapter

Twenty items, mixed. Put each one back with the job it does in a causal chain.

Sort each item into the correct category

Points from cause to effect

Names the consequence

Makes it worse

Makes it better

Sets a condition

Unassigned

give rise to

stem from

be attributable to

contribute to

repercussion

byproduct

knock-on effect

implication

exacerbate

deteriorate

escalate

strain

alleviate

curb

offset

counteract

provided that

in the absence of

hinge on

be subject to

Mixed Recall

Ten questions across the chapter. Several wrong options say the exact opposite of what they mean to.

Weighted towards the three sprints that decide most marks: causal direction, worsening and mitigation.

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Falling transport revenue then forced cuts to rural bus routes. What is the second effect called?

One Paragraph, Five Clusters

A problem-solution paragraph needing an item from every part of this chapter.

Fill each gap with ONE word unless the hint says otherwise. Before each causal verb, check whether the thing in front of it is the cause or the result.

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Rising rents in large cities from a shortage of housing rather than from wage growth, though the two are often confused. The shortage itself is by planning rules that were written for a much smaller population, and every year of delay the problem further. One that policymakers rarely anticipate is that long commutes lengthen as households move outward, which in turn a knock-on effect on road congestion. Rising rents also a burden on younger workers, and are to the mental health of those spending more than half their income on housing. No single measure will the shortage entirely; the realistic aim is to pressure at the lower end of the market while supply catches up. that construction rates remain where they are, however, even that modest goal is out of reach.

Chapter Production Task

Build a causal chain and propose a partial fix — then find out which band your lexis is sitting at.

Write one Task 2 body paragraph — around five sentences — using at least six items from this chapter.

Topic: the rise in the number of people living alone in large cities, and what follows from it.

The paragraph must do three things:

build a two-step causal chain — X causes Y, and Y in turn causes Z
name one consequence precisely, using the right noun for whether it was intended, immediate or second-order
propose a partial fix, not a solution

Use at least six Chapter 4 items from at least three of the five clusters:

cause verbs · effect nouns · worsening · mitigation · condition

Before you submit, run the two-second test on every causal verb: is the thing in front of it the cause, or the result?

Your body paragraph*

Around five sentences. A two-step chain, one named consequence, one partial fix.

Which chapter items did you use?*

Just the items, separated by commas.

Your Weakest Cluster

Name the cluster you trust least, and get those items back first.

Learners can ask follow-up questions and keep the thread going.

Five clusters in this chapter:

cause verbs · effect nouns · worsening · mitigation · condition

Which one did you get wrong most often today?

Name it, and say what goes wrong. In this chapter there are two very different failures: pointing the arrow the wrong way, and claiming the wrong amount. The first writes the opposite of what you meant. The second is what an examiner reads as overreach.

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