Following a Long Explanation is a free printable Grade 2 English worksheet on holding a multi-stage explanation together, aligned to Common Core standard RI.2.10. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.
Set 1 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
When a boat is in trouble, a call goes out to the lifeboat station.
Pagers sound. The crew are volunteers, so they stop whatever they are doing and drive to the station. Most arrive within six minutes.
They pull on drysuits and lifejackets and climb aboard. The boat slides down a ramp into the sea and the engines start.
At sea, the crew look for a flare, a light, or a shape in the water. Once they find the boat, they take the people off first and the boat second.
A lifeboat can right itself if a wave rolls it over.
1. Put these in order: the boat slides down the ramp, pagers sound, the crew pull on drysuits.
2. How are the pagers connected to the launch?
3. Summarise this text in one sentence.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
Volcanoes
A volcano is an opening in the Earth's crust where hot rock reaches the surface.
Deep underground, rock is so hot that it melts. Melted rock is called magma. Magma is lighter than the solid rock around it, so it rises.
When magma reaches the surface it is called lava. Lava can pour out slowly in rivers, or it can burst out in an explosion, depending on how thick it is.
As lava cools it hardens into new rock. Layer after layer, this new rock builds the mountain we call a volcano.
1. Put these in order: lava hardens, rock melts, magma rises.
2. Summarise this text in one sentence.
3. How are magma and lava connected?
LessonPrint · RI.2.10 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Following a Long Explanation
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. Pagers sound, the crew pull on drysuits, the boat slides down the ramp. 2. The pagers tell the volunteer crew to come, so the boat can be launched. 3. A pager call brings volunteers to the station, they suit up, launch down a ramp and take the people off a boat in trouble.
2.1. Rock melts, magma rises, lava hardens. 2. Melted rock rises through the Earth's crust as magma, pours out as lava, and hardens layer by layer into a volcano. 3. They are the same melted rock — magma underground becomes lava at the surface.
Questions about Following a Long Explanation
What does the Following a Long Explanation worksheet cover?
It practises holding a multi-stage explanation together — 2 questions for Grade 2, all on Common Core RI.2.10: Read and understand Grade 2-3 information texts by the year's end. The instruction to pupils is “Read the text, then answer the questions”, and the answer key follows on the next sheet.
Which Common Core standard does Following a Long Explanation practise?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.2.10 — RI.2.10, in the Reading: Informational Text domain for Grade 2. The published standard reads: “By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
Following a Long Explanation is written for Grade 2, typically ages 7-8. It is one of the sheets on RI.2.10, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does Following a Long Explanation come with an answer key?
Yes. All 2 answers are generated from the same problems as the questions, so the key cannot drift out of step with the sheet. It starts on a fresh sheet of paper, after the questions, so it is not handed out with the class by accident.
How many different versions of Following a Long Explanation can I print?
25 — one per pupil, and all 25 ask different questions. Set 1 downloads the whole class as a single PDF. Every version is fixed to its own address, so a sheet printed today holds the same problems when you reopen it next week.
Is Following a Long Explanation free to print and photocopy?
Yes. Following a Long Explanation, its answer key and its 25 versions are free to print and photocopy for your own class, with no account, no email capture and no subscription at the download step. Please do not resell them or republish them as your own.
More practice for RI.2.10
Read and understand Grade 2-3 information texts by the year's end.