Consider the following statement and choose the option that follows. Statements: I. Banks have increased staff training on cyber security. II. There has been a surge in cyber attacks.

Correct — B.
Rule: the cause comes first and prompts the effect. Ask which statement would make the other happen.

II, a surge in cyber attacks, is a problem.
I, more staff training on cyber security, is a response to that problem.
The attacks prompt the training; the training does not prompt the attacks.

II is the cause and I is the effect → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  I is the cause and II is the effect. — I as the cause would mean training staff led to more cyber attacks. The direction runs the other way: the attacks are why banks train staff.
• (c)
  Both are unrelated. — Both are unrelated misses the link. Training on cyber security follows naturally from a rise in cyber attacks, and the two share one subject.
• (d)
  No relation. — No relation says the same thing as option (c). Two options that mean the same thing cannot be the one keyed answer, and both deny an obvious link.

Cause-and-effect items give two events and ask which produced which. Test each direction as a sentence: 'Because cyber attacks surged, banks trained staff' reads naturally, while 'Because banks trained staff, cyber attacks surged' does not.

When one statement is a problem and the other an action taken about it, read the action as the effect: people act because the problem exists.

Key facts

• The cause happens first and prompts the effect.
• A response or precaution is the effect of the problem it answers.
• Two options that say the same thing cannot be the single correct answer.

Common traps

• Taking the statements in printed order and marking I as the cause
• Choosing unrelated because neither statement says outright that one caused the other

No directly related past PYQ was found.