Skip to content
LessonPrint

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 15 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next set

One paper per pupil

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Following a Technical Explanation

RI.3.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

How a Canal Lock Works

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. 1. Why must the lower gate be closed before the sluices are opened?
  2. 2. Explain the cause and effect between the sluices and the boat.
  3. 3. Put these in order: the upper gate opens, the lower gate closes, the sluices open.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Why Bread Rises

Yeast is alive. It is a fungus, and each grain of dried yeast holds millions of cells waiting for water. Add warm water and the cells wake up. They begin to feed on the sugars in the flour. As they feed, they give off carbon dioxide gas. The gas cannot escape, because kneading the dough has built a stretchy web of gluten that traps it. Thousands of tiny bubbles form, and the dough swells. In the oven, two things happen. The trapped gas expands in the heat, so the loaf rises further. Then the heat kills the yeast and sets the gluten, and the bubbles are locked in place. That is why bread has holes in it.

  1. 1. Put these in order: the gluten sets, the yeast feeds, the gas expands.
  2. 2. Explain the cause and effect between kneading and the holes in bread.
  3. 3. What would happen to dough with no gluten in it?

LessonPrint · RI.3.10 · Set 15 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Technical Explanation

Set 15. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Otherwise the water would run straight out of the chamber instead of raising the boat. 2. Opening the sluices lets water flow in, which causes the water level and the boat to rise. 3. The lower gate closes, the sluices open, the upper gate opens.
  2. 2.1. The yeast feeds, the gas expands, the gluten sets. 2. Kneading builds the gluten web, which traps the gas in bubbles, and the heat locks those bubbles in as holes. 3. The gas would escape, so the dough would not swell and the bread would be flat.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.3.10 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.