Following a Technical Explanation is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on holding a chain of causes together while reading, aligned to Common Core standard RI.3.10. 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.
A canal cannot run uphill. Where the land rises, engineers build a lock: a chamber with a gate at each end.
A boat going uphill enters the lock through the lower gate. The gate closes behind it.
Sluices in the upper gate are opened. Water flows in from the higher stretch of canal, and the boat rises with it. No pump is needed, because the water comes down by gravity.
When the water inside matches the level above, the upper gate can be opened and the boat moves on.
Going downhill, everything runs the other way: the water is let out, and the boat sinks with it.
1. Put these in order: the upper gate opens, the lower gate closes, the sluices open.
2. Why must the lower gate be closed before the sluices are opened?
3. Explain the cause and effect between the sluices and the boat.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
Turning Milk into Cheese
Cheese begins as an accident that people learned to repeat.
Milk is mostly water with fat and protein in it. To make cheese, the protein has to be separated out.
A starter culture of bacteria is added first. The bacteria turn some of the milk sugar into acid, and the acid begins to make the protein clump together.
Then rennet is added, which finishes the job. The milk splits into solid curds and watery whey.
The whey is drained off. The curds are pressed, salted, and left to age. Time does the rest: a cheese aged for two years tastes nothing like the same cheese at two weeks.
1. Explain the cause and effect between the acid and the curds.
2. Why must the whey be drained off?
3. Put these in order: the whey is drained, rennet is added, the curds are pressed.
LessonPrint · RI.3.10 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Following a Technical Explanation
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. The lower gate closes, the sluices open, the upper gate opens. 2. Otherwise the water would run straight out of the chamber instead of raising the boat. 3. Opening the sluices lets water flow in, which causes the water level and the boat to rise.
2.1. The acid makes the protein clump together, and rennet finishes it, so the milk splits into curds and whey. 2. Because cheese is made from the solid curds, and the whey is the watery part left over. 3. Rennet is added, the whey is drained, the curds are pressed.
Questions about Following a Technical Explanation
What does the Following a Technical Explanation worksheet cover?
It practises holding a chain of causes together while reading — 2 questions for Grade 3, all on Common Core RI.3.10: Read and understand harder Grade 2-3 information texts on your own. 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 Technical Explanation practise?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.10 — RI.3.10, in the Reading: Informational Text domain for Grade 3. The published standard reads: “By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
Following a Technical Explanation is written for Grade 3, typically ages 8-9. It is one of the sheets on RI.3.10, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does Following a Technical 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 Technical 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 Technical Explanation free to print and photocopy?
Yes. Following a Technical 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.3.10
Read and understand harder Grade 2-3 information texts on your own.