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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.

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

LessonPrint · RI.4.10 · Set 22 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Chain of Causes

Set 22. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Because it needs no soil — the fungus holds water and the alga makes food. 2. 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. 3. The fungus gives structure and water, the alga makes sugar; separated, the fungus starves and the alga dries out.
  2. 2.1. 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.

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