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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 8 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.

What a Coral Reef Is

A coral reef looks like rock and is built by animals. A coral polyp is a soft creature the size of a pinhead. It draws calcium from the sea water and builds a hard cup around itself. Millions of polyps, cup upon cup, become a reef. Inside each polyp live tiny algae. The algae make food from sunlight and pass most of it to the polyp. In exchange they get shelter and the polyp's waste. Neither could build a reef alone. When the water gets too warm, the polyps expel the algae. Without them the coral turns white and starves. That is what bleaching means. A reef takes centuries to build and can bleach in a single hot summer.

  1. 1. The text says neither organism could build a reef alone. What evidence supports that?
  2. 2. Quote the words that explain what the algae give the polyp.
  3. 3. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

How Penicillin Was Found

In 1928 Alexander Fleming went on holiday and left a stack of dishes on a bench. Each held a colony of bacteria. When he came back, one dish had a spot of mould on it. Around the mould was a clear ring where the bacteria had died. Fleming realised the mould was producing something that killed bacteria. He named it penicillin and published a paper. Almost nobody noticed. Ten years later, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain read that paper and tried to make penicillin in quantity. That turned out to be the hard part: it took two thousand litres of mould fluid to treat one patient. By 1944 the problem had been solved and penicillin was reaching soldiers in the field.

  1. 1. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
  2. 2. Quote the sentence that explains why Fleming's discovery went nowhere at first.
  3. 3. The text says the hard part was not the discovery. What evidence supports that?

LessonPrint · SL.4.3 · Set 8 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — A Speaker's Reasons and Evidence

Set 8. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The algae make the food; the polyp makes the cup and gives them shelter. 2. "The algae make food from sunlight and pass most of it to the polyp." 3. To explain what a reef is and why it is fragile — the last line makes the contrast explicit.
  2. 2.1. To correct the idea that penicillin was one lucky accident — the second half is all about the work that followed. 2. "He named it penicillin and published a paper. Almost nobody noticed." 3. It took ten years for anyone to act, and two thousand litres of fluid to treat one patient.

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.