Level 4 — Upper Intermediate · Spoken Argument
Drill 29: Stating a Cause and an Alternative Explanation, Out Loud
Say a causal claim live, then immediately voice one alternative explanation you haven't ruled out — the spoken half of Lesson 29's causal reasoning skills.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this drill, you should be able to:
- State a causal claim and its mechanism immediately, without a long planning pause
- Voice an honest alternative explanation against your own causal claim, live
- Use 'largely responsible for' or 'contributed to' rather than an unqualified 'caused' under time pressure
Introduction
Lesson 29 trained you to read a causal claim critically, checking for a named mechanism and an alternative explanation the author might be skipping. Doing that live, in your own speech, is harder — it's tempting to just blurt "X caused Y" and stop. This drill makes you keep talking past the easy claim into an honest alternative.
Shadow the Model
The new checklist was largely responsible for fewer shipping errors, though the team also hired two experienced staff that same month, so that probably helped too.
Listen once all the way through. Notice the pivot at "though" — the speaker's pitch drops slightly and slows down right before naming the alternative explanation, signaling "here's the honest part."
Your Turn
Your Turn
Think of a real or plausible cause-and-effect situation you know something about (work, a habit, a routine). When the timer starts, state the causal claim and briefly how it works, then immediately add one honest alternative explanation using "though" or "however." Don't stop after the first claim — keep speaking into the alternative.
Speak now — cause, mechanism, then an honest alternative
Record Yourself
Record your causal claim and alternative explanation, then check whether you kept speaking past the first claim without stopping.
Model Answer
Show a model answer
There's no single correct claim — what matters is the shape. For example: "Switching to the new booking app was largely responsible for shorter queues at the gate, by letting drivers reserve arrival times in advance. Though the terminal also opened a second lane that same month, so that probably helped too." Check that you didn't stop after the first sentence — the alternative explanation has to actually get spoken.
Vocabulary in Context
mechanismnountechnical
how a cause actually produces its effect, spoken aloud rather than just asserted (প্রক্রিয়া)
Often with causal mechanism, underlying mechanism, mechanism by which
“The mechanism is simple: fatigue leads to skipped checks, and skipped checks lead to errors.”
alternative explanationnoun phraseformal
another possible cause for the same effect, voiced honestly instead of ignored (বিকল্প ব্যাখ্যা)
Often with offer an alternative explanation, consider an alternative explanation, plausible alternative explanation
“One alternative explanation is that volumes fell because of the weather.”
Self-Check
Self-Check
- Did you state the cause and its mechanism immediately, without a long pause?
- Did you keep speaking into an honest alternative explanation, rather than stopping at the first claim?
- Did you use "largely responsible for" or "contributed to" instead of an unqualified "caused"?
- Did you speak directly in English, without translating from Bangla first?
Next: Speaking 30 — Evidence, Claims, Data & Interpretation: saying what you observed and what you think it means as two clearly separate spoken sentences.