Verklaringsvraag
A question asking why something is so — according to the text, not according to the world.
5 of our 291 B2 reading items. The stem is Waarom …? with volgens de tekst or volgens de schrijver somewhere in it, and those words are the whole difficulty. Every option is a reason somebody could give — penalties are too low, office staff work harder, there are too few specialists — and three of them are reasons you could hold about the topic without reading a line. Only one is the reason this text gives, and at B2 it is often carried by a colon or a plain en dat rather than by omdat.
How the exam tests this
Lezen on Programma II: roughly 35–36 multiple-choice questions over about six texts in 100 minutes, computer-marked. Phrased Waarom … volgens de tekst? or Waarom is X volgens de schrijver …? The correct option paraphrases one sentence, usually one with a causal link inside it. The wrong options are built three ways: a reason that is popular or true in the world but absent from this text, a reason from the same text that explains a different claim, and the text's own reason turned the wrong way round — tijdschriften te streng voor positieve uitkomsten, when the text says they preferred them.
What is wrong with this sentence?
Omdat straffen te laag zijn
Most candidates write it exactly like this and lose the mark without knowing why.
The rest of this lesson
The rule, the worked examples, the exceptions and what to do in the exam room open with Mastery, together with every other lesson for this exam.
See plans