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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 21 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.

The Wolves and the Rivers

Wolves were shot out of Yellowstone by 1926. Fourteen were brought back in 1995. With no wolves, elk had grazed the valleys freely for seventy years. Young willow and aspen were eaten as soon as they grew. The wolves killed some elk. More importantly, they changed where elk would stand still. Open valley floors became dangerous, so the elk stopped lingering there. Willow and aspen grew back along the rivers. Beavers, which need willow, returned. Their dams made ponds. Roots held the banks. The rivers narrowed, deepened and moved less. Some researchers describe this as wolves changing the shape of rivers, though others argue the effect has been overstated.

  1. 1. What would a diagram of this chain need to show?
  2. 2. What overall structure does this text use?
  3. 3. How would a flow diagram help this text?
2.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. How would a photograph with a scale bar help this text?
  2. 2. What would a diagram of a lichen need to label?
  3. 3. What overall structure does this text use?

LessonPrint · SL.4.2 · Set 21 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Information in Other Forms

Set 21. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Wolves, elk behaviour, willow and aspen, beavers and dams, and the narrowed river. 2. Cause and effect in a chain, from wolves to elk to trees to beavers to rivers. 3. It could show the chain from wolves to rivers in one picture, which the words take five paragraphs to build.
  2. 2.1. It would show how little a millimetre a year amounts to over a lifetime. 2. The fungal structure holding water and the algal cells inside it. 3. It defines, then explains the partnership, then gives two consequences: dating rock and measuring pollution.

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