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A Speaker's Reasons and Evidence is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on identifying what supports a speaker's point, aligned to Common Core standard SL.4.3. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 24 of them with 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 24 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 24 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.

A Speaker's Reasons and Evidence

SL.4.3

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Lichen

A lichen is not one organism. It is a fungus and an alga living as one body. The fungus provides the structure and holds water. The alga photosynthesises and makes sugar. Separated, the fungus starves and the alga dries out. Because it needs no soil, a lichen can grow on bare rock, on gravestones and on the roofs of cars that have not moved for a decade. Lichens grow extremely slowly — some crustose species less than a millimetre a year. Scientists use that rate to date rock surfaces, a method called lichenometry. Lichens also absorb whatever is in the air. Where the air is dirty, they disappear, which makes them a living measure of pollution.

  1. 1. The text says lichens are a living measure of pollution. What reason is given?
  2. 2. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
  3. 3. Quote the words that explain what each partner supplies.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Longitude Problem

A ship's latitude — how far north or south it is — can be found from the height of the sun at noon. Sailors could do that for centuries. Longitude, how far east or west, was the problem. It has no natural marker. The solution was known in principle: compare the time on board with the time at a fixed place. The Earth turns fifteen degrees an hour, so every hour of difference is fifteen degrees of longitude. That required a clock that stayed accurate on a rolling, salty, temperature-swinging ship. No such clock existed. John Harrison, a carpenter, spent forty-three years building four. The fourth, finished in 1759, was the size of a large pocket watch and lost five seconds in eighty-one days at sea.

  1. 1. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
  2. 2. The text says no such clock existed. What reasons are given?
  3. 3. Quote the words that state why longitude was harder than latitude.

LessonPrint · SL.4.3 · Set 24 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — A Speaker's Reasons and Evidence

Set 24. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. They absorb whatever is in the air, so they disappear where the air is dirty. 2. To explain what a lichen is and why it is useful to scientists — the last two paragraphs are both uses. 3. "The fungus provides the structure and holds water. The alga photosynthesises and makes sugar."
  2. 2.1. To explain why a solved-in-principle problem took so long — the obstacle is stated before the answer. 2. A ship rolls, is salty, and swings in temperature — all of which upset a clock. 3. "It has no natural marker."

More practice for SL.4.3

Pick out a speaker's reasons and evidence for each point.

Teaching this next? A Speaker's Reasons and Evidence is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 4 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to SL.4.3 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.