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Two Versions of One Story is a free printable Grade 2 English worksheet on comparing two tellings of a similar tale, aligned to Common Core standard RL.2.9. 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 24 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.

Two Versions of One Story

RL.2.9

NameDate

Read Text 1 and answer the question under it.

1.Read Text 1 and answer the question under it.

Text 1: The Crow and the Pitcher

A crow had flown for hours without finding water. At last she saw a pitcher standing in a garden. She landed on the rim and looked in. There was water at the bottom, but the neck was narrow and her beak could not reach it. She pushed the pitcher. It was too heavy to tip. Then the crow noticed the pebbles on the path. She picked one up and dropped it in. Then another. Then another. Each pebble pushed the water a little higher. After forty pebbles, the water reached the top. The crow drank until she had had enough.

  1. 1. Why could the crow not reach the water at first?
2.Now read Text 2 and answer these questions about BOTH texts.

Text 2: The Lion and the Mouse

A lion lay sleeping in the sun. A mouse ran across his paw and woke him. The lion caught the mouse in one hand. "Please let me go," said the mouse. "One day I may help you." The lion laughed. How could a mouse help a lion? But he opened his hand. Weeks later the lion walked into a hunter's net. He roared and pulled, and the ropes only tightened. The mouse heard him. She came at once and gnawed the ropes, one strand at a time, until the lion could step free.

  1. 1. How is this fable like "The Lion and the Mouse"?
  2. 2. How is the mouse different from the crow?
  3. 3. How is the crow's problem different from the lion's?

LessonPrint · RL.2.9 · Set 24 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Two Versions of One Story

Set 24. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The neck of the pitcher was narrow and her beak could not reach.
  2. 2.1. In both, a small or weak creature solves something that strength could not. 2. The mouse helps somebody else; the crow solves a problem of her own. 3. The crow solves her own problem with pebbles; the lion is freed by somebody else.

More practice for RL.2.9

Compare two tellings of the same tale and say what each changed.

Teaching this next? Two Versions of the Same Story is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 2 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.2.9 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.