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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.

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. Explain the relationship between the dam and drought protection.
  2. 2. Put these in order: rich wet ground forms, the dam slows the water, silt drops out.
  3. 3. Summarise this text.

LessonPrint · RI.4.10 · Set 9 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Chain of Causes

Set 9. 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. The dam slows water, silt builds rich wet ground, and that ground holds water through a drought. 2. The dam slows the water, silt drops out, rich wet ground forms. 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.

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