Study Habits Cloze: Cohesion and Contrast

(1) Although. The first clause reports a common practice; the second reports research that points the other way. "Because" would wrongly make the common practice a cause of the research finding. (2) For example. The 2022 review is evidence supporting the general claim about shorter sessions. "Nevertheless" would signal contrast, but no contrast exists between the claim and the supporting review. (3) Therefore. Planning breaks is presented as a cause or reason for reporting less fatigue. "In contrast" would set the two groups against each other, which the sentence does not do. (4) Despite. "The evidence" is a noun phrase, and the sentence says many students act contrary to it. "Because of" would reverse the logic and say the evidence causes cramming.

Choose (a): "Changing this habit requires more than willpower alone." The comparison is between two quantities or resources: the habit requires something beyond willpower. The structure "more than + noun" is standard. Option (b), "willpower alone more than," is ungrammatical because "more than" has no complement after it and the word order does not form a comparative phrase. The meaning of (a) is that willpower by itself is insufficient; other supports, such as scheduling or environmental changes, are also needed.

"Because" marks cause: clause A causes clause B. Here, "many students study in long blocks" does not cause "research suggests shorter sessions are more effective." The two clauses are in contrast: a common habit versus evidence that recommends a different habit. "Although" marks concession, allowing the writer to acknowledge the common practice while presenting the opposing research. The candidate likely saw two clauses and chose a familiar connector without checking whether the logic was cause or contrast.