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Following a Chain of Causes is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on holding a multi-step causal chain together, aligned to Common Core standard RI.4.10. 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 Chain of Causes

RI.4.10

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. Put these in order: rich wet ground forms, the dam slows the water, silt drops out.
  2. 2. Explain the relationship between the dam and drought protection.
  3. 3. Summarise this text.
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. Explain the relationship between Fleming's paper and Florey and Chain's work.
  2. 2. Put these in order: penicillin reaches soldiers, Fleming publishes, Florey and Chain read the paper.
  3. 3. Summarise this text.

LessonPrint · RI.4.10 · Set 10 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Chain of Causes

Set 10. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The dam slows the water, silt drops out, rich wet ground forms. 2. The dam slows water, silt builds rich wet ground, and that ground holds water through a drought. 3. A beaver dams a river to make a pond with an underwater lodge entrance, and the slowed water builds wet ground that buffers drought and flood and raises species numbers.
  2. 2.1. They read the paper ten years later and took on the problem Fleming had not solved: producing penicillin in quantity. 2. Fleming publishes, Florey and Chain read the paper, penicillin reaches soldiers. 3. Fleming spotted mould killing bacteria in 1928 and published to no response; Florey and Chain solved the production problem, and by 1944 penicillin reached soldiers.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.4.10 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.