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Information in Other Forms is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on taking meaning from a visual or spoken presentation, aligned to Common Core standard SL.4.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 24 of them with 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. 24 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.

Information in Other Forms

SL.4.2

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. How would a before-and-after photograph help this text?
  2. 2. What would a cross-section of a beaver pond need to label?
  3. 3. What overall structure does this text use?
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. How would a reproduction of the first X-ray help this text?
  2. 2. What overall structure does this text use?
  3. 3. What would a diagram of Röntgen's experiment need to show?

LessonPrint · SL.4.2 · Set 14 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Information in Other Forms

Set 14. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. It would show the valley with and without the pond, which the text describes over years. 2. The dam, the raised water, the lodge and its underwater entrance. 3. Cause and effect, widening from the lodge to the valley.
  2. 2.1. It would show what Röntgen actually saw: bones and a wedding ring. 2. Chronology, from the accidental glow to hospital use within a year. 3. The covered tube, the room, the glowing screen across it, and the materials placed in the way.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to SL.4.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.