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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.

Set 14 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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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.

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. Summarise this text.
  2. 2. Why can a lichen colonise bare rock before anything else?
  3. 3. Explain the relationship between the fungus and the alga.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Why Clocks Agree

Until the 1840s, every British town kept its own time, set by the sun. Noon in Bristol was about ten minutes after noon in London. That was no problem while the fastest thing on the road was a horse. The railways changed it. A timetable cannot work if every station measures noon differently, and trains sharing a track need to agree about when. So the railway companies imposed London time on their whole network. People called it railway time. Some towns kept two minute hands on the town clock for years, one local and one railway. In 1880 Parliament made a single time legal across the country. The sun had been overruled by the timetable.

  1. 1. Put these in order: Parliament makes it law, towns keep two minute hands, railways impose London time.
  2. 2. Summarise this text.
  3. 3. Explain the relationship between the railways and standard time.

LessonPrint · RI.4.10 · Set 14 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Chain of Causes

Set 14. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. A lichen is a fungus and an alga living as one body, able to grow on bare rock, so slow it can date surfaces and so sensitive it measures air pollution. 2. Because it needs no soil — the fungus holds water and the alga makes food. 3. The fungus gives structure and water, the alga makes sugar; separated, the fungus starves and the alga dries out.
  2. 2.1. Railways impose London time, towns keep two minute hands, Parliament makes it law. 2. Every British town kept its own sun time until railway timetables made that impossible, so railway companies imposed London time and Parliament made it law in 1880. 3. Timetables and shared track needed every station to agree about when, so the companies imposed London time.

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