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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 9 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 Beaver Dam Does

A beaver does not build a dam for shelter. It builds one to make a pond, and it lives in a lodge in the pond. The dam raises the water so the lodge entrance stays underwater. A predator that cannot swim cannot get in. But the pond does far more than protect one family. Behind a dam, water slows, and slow water drops the silt it carries. Over years this builds rich wet ground. That ground holds water in a drought and holds it back in a flood. It supports plants, insects, amphibians and birds that were not there before. Where beavers have been reintroduced, the number of species in a valley typically rises within five years.

  1. 1. The text says the pond does more than protect one family. What evidence supports that?
  2. 2. Quote the words that explain what slow water does.
  3. 3. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
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 9 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — A Speaker's Reasons and Evidence

Set 9. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The wet ground it builds holds water in drought and flood and supports new plants, insects, amphibians and birds. 2. "slow water drops the silt it carries". 3. To correct the idea that a dam is a beaver's house and explain what it does for a valley.
  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.