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How Actions Drive the Story is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on explaining how what a character does shapes the events, aligned to Common Core standard RL.3.3. 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 16 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.

How Actions Drive the Story

RL.3.3

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Last Letter

Every Thursday for six years, Mr Ellis posted a letter to his sister in Canada. Then the letters started coming back. Address unknown. He kept writing them anyway. He put them in a shoebox instead of the postbox. When his neighbour Ada asked why, he said, "Because the day I stop writing is the day she is really gone." Ada went home and looked up the town on a map. It took her three weeks and eleven phone calls to find the new address. The shoebox held ninety-two letters. They posted them all on the same day.

  1. 1. What happened between the letters coming back and them all being posted?
  2. 2. What do Ada's actions tell you about her?
  3. 3. Describe Mr Ellis's motivation for writing letters he could not send.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Museum Key (a scene from a play)

SCENE TWO. The museum store room. Night. Boxes everywhere. A single desk lamp. PRIYA: (whispering) It was here on Tuesday. On this shelf. JON: You are sure it was this shelf? PRIYA: I dusted it. I am sure. JON: (lifting a lid) Then somebody moved it after Tuesday. PRIYA: Or before Tuesday, and I dusted the empty space. (Pause. JON puts the lid down slowly.) JON: That is worse. PRIYA: I know.

  1. 1. Describe Priya from what she says.
  2. 2. How does Jon respond to Priya's second idea?
  3. 3. What happens after Priya suggests it went missing before Tuesday?

LessonPrint · RL.3.3 · Set 16 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — How Actions Drive the Story

Set 16. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Mr Ellis kept writing into a shoebox, and Ada spent three weeks finding the new address. 2. She is persistent and quietly kind — three weeks and eleven calls, without being asked. 3. Writing kept his sister present for him — stopping would have meant losing her.
  2. 2.1. Careful and honest — Priya is sure she dusted it, then admits she may have dusted an empty shelf. 2. He puts the lid down slowly and says it is worse — he sees what it would mean. 3. Jon pauses, puts the lid down slowly, and says that is worse.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.3.3 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.