You can expect to find cause and effect
relationships in a science text. "Dogs and People" is
an example of a science text, and you've already noticed
comparisons in the text. This question will ask you to
identify cause / effect relationships. Review the article
with a focus in mind. The article is linked to the book
icon on the right.
Wolves hung around Stone Age hunting camps
and lived on scraps.
Wolves became domesticated.
Experimenters offered the first litters of
wolf pups bred for tameness food by hand.
Pups in the first litters would run away
or try to bite the experimenter.
The most tame foxes
were bred with each other.
The fox offspring eventually
became tame over the generations.
Review Cause/Effect:
In an informational selection, writers often explain events,
ideas, discoveries, or facts in a cause/effect pattern. Things
don't just happen without a reason or cause.
A cause is a starter or a reason. Some
events, facts, situations, or ideas cause others
things to happen.
The result, or reason, or consequence of a cause is
an effect.
How to identify cause and effect:
Try an "As a result of" statement with
events in the text.
As
a result of the torrential rainfall, the ground
around the trees was soaked, and trees toppled
over.
As
a result of the oil spill in the Pacific, marine
life washed up on the beach, covered in oil
and unable to survive.
Create a chart as you read to help understand and analyze
the connections what you read.
In
"Dogs and People," an article you have
read, a cause & effect chart might look like this:
Cause
Effect
Wolves
hung around Stone Age hunting camps and lived on
scraps.
Wolves
became domesticated.
Experimenters
offered the first litters of wolf pups bred for tameness
food by hand.
Pups
in the first litters would run away or try to bite
the experimenter.
The
most tame foxes were bred with each other.
The
fox offspring eventually became tame over the generations.
Question:
Which sentences
best describes the cause of wolves becoming domesticated?
TIPS:
What are the key words in the question? "best,
cause, wolves domesticated"
What does "domesticated" mean? From
the context of paragraph four, we find out that over time,
wolves became dogs and "began living with people," and
that they were "commonly taken into people's homes
as a pet." Those phrases help define "domesticated."
Try the cause/effect questioning strategy with the answer
choices. Take the answer and make it into a statement.
As a result of(CAUSE: fill
in the answer choice sentence), (EFFECT) wolves
became domesticated.
Example: As
a result of (answer A: wolf bones being buring
with human bones), wolves became domesticated.
When you have put together the cause / effect sentence,
then you need to ask yourself it it is true, makes sense,
and can be supported by the text.
Yes
No
Maybe
Answers
A.
Wolves bones and human bones were found buried together
in a cave from about 14,000 years ago.
B.
Early people probably practiced selective breeding to
change the wolf into a dog over time.
C.
Wolves found food by hanging around Stone Age hunting
camps, eating scraps left by the hunters.
D.
Wolves and people have similar characteristics; living
in packs, being able to communicate, getting along together,
and following a leader.
Which answer best describes how wolves became domesticated?
