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Domain-Specific Words is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on working out a subject word from the text around it, aligned to Common Core standard RI.4.4. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 22 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 11 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 22 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.

Domain-Specific Words

RI.4.4

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Wolves and the Rivers

Wolves were shot out of Yellowstone by 1926. Fourteen were brought back in 1995. With no wolves, elk had grazed the valleys freely for seventy years. Young willow and aspen were eaten as soon as they grew. The wolves killed some elk. More importantly, they changed where elk would stand still. Open valley floors became dangerous, so the elk stopped lingering there. Willow and aspen grew back along the rivers. Beavers, which need willow, returned. Their dams made ponds. Roots held the banks. The rivers narrowed, deepened and moved less. Some researchers describe this as wolves changing the shape of rivers, though others argue the effect has been overstated.

  1. 1. What does "grazed" mean?
  2. 2. What does "overstated" mean here?
2.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. What does "photosynthesises" mean?
  2. 2. What does "absorb" mean here?

LessonPrint · RI.4.4 · Set 11 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Domain-Specific Words

Set 11. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Grazed means fed on growing plants — the elk grazed the valleys for seventy years. 2. Overstated means claimed to be bigger than it really was — some researchers say the wolves' effect has been.
  2. 2.1. Makes food from sunlight. 2. Take in from the air around it.

More practice for RI.4.4

Work out what an academic or subject word means in this text.

Teaching this next? Subject Vocabulary in Context is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 4 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.4.4 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.