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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 18 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.

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. Summarise this text.
  2. 2. Explain the relationship between an accurate clock and knowing your longitude.
  3. 3. Put these in order: Harrison finishes his fourth clock, the principle is known, latitude can be measured.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Accidental Photograph

In 1895 Wilhelm Röntgen was working with a covered tube in a darkened room when he noticed a screen across the laboratory glowing. Something was passing through the cover and crossing the room. He did not know what it was, so he called it X — the unknown. He spent seven weeks alone in the laboratory testing it. He put wood, rubber and metal in the way. Metal stopped it; the rest did not. Then he asked his wife to put her hand between the tube and a photographic plate. The picture showed the bones of her hand and her wedding ring. Within a year, X-rays were being used in hospitals. Röntgen refused to patent them.

  1. 1. Put these in order: he photographs a hand, he notices a glowing screen, he tests wood and metal.
  2. 2. Summarise this text.
  3. 3. Explain the relationship between the seven weeks of testing and the photograph of the hand.

LessonPrint · RI.4.10 · Set 18 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Chain of Causes

Set 18. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Latitude was easy and longitude had no natural marker; comparing times would give it, and Harrison spent forty-three years building a clock accurate enough at sea. 2. Comparing shipboard time with time at a fixed place gives the hours of difference, and each hour is fifteen degrees. 3. Latitude can be measured, the principle is known, Harrison finishes his fourth clock.
  2. 2.1. He notices a glowing screen, he tests wood and metal, he photographs a hand. 2. Röntgen noticed an unexplained glow in 1895, tested it alone for seven weeks, photographed his wife's hand bones, and within a year hospitals were using X-rays. 3. The testing established that metal stopped the rays and other materials did not, which is what made the bone photograph possible.

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