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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.

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

The Salmon's Return

A salmon hatches in a river, swims to the sea, and comes back years later to the river it was born in. It finds its way home by smell. Every river carries its own mixture of soil, rock and plants, and a young salmon learns that smell before it leaves. The return journey is upstream. The fish leap waterfalls, sometimes several metres high, and they do not eat once they enter fresh water. Because it is not feeding, a salmon uses up its own body on the climb. By the time it reaches the gravel where it hatched, it is thin and worn. There it lays its eggs. Most Atlantic salmon die soon afterwards.

  1. 1. Explain the cause and effect between not eating and the salmon's condition.
  2. 2. Why does a young salmon need to learn the river's smell before it leaves?
  3. 3. Put these in order: it lays eggs, it swims to the sea, it hatches in gravel.

LessonPrint · RI.3.10 · Set 18 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Technical Explanation

Set 18. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The lower gate closes, the sluices open, the upper gate opens. 2. Opening the sluices lets water flow in, which causes the water level and the boat to rise. 3. Otherwise the water would run straight out of the chamber instead of raising the boat.
  2. 2.1. Because it is not feeding, it uses up its own body, so it arrives thin and worn. 2. Because that memory is what it uses years later to find the same river again. 3. It hatches in gravel, it swims to the sea, it lays eggs.

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