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Read for Sense is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on reading closely enough to answer with evidence, aligned to Common Core standard RF.3.4. 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 3 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.

Read for Sense

RF.3.4

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. How many letters were in the shoebox?
  2. 2. Which sentence shows how much work Ada put in?
  3. 3. How often did Mr Ellis write to his sister?
  4. 4. Quote the words Mr Ellis gives as his reason for still writing.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Night the Lamp Went Out

Grace's father kept the lighthouse. On the worst night of the winter, the lamp went out. He was ill in bed. Grace was eleven. She carried the oil up ninety-seven steps in the dark, twice, because the can was too heavy to lift full. Her arms shook so much on the second trip that she had to sit down halfway. She trimmed the wick the way she had watched a hundred times. She struck the match on the fourth try. By the time the light swung out across the water, three ships had already turned back. Grace never knew whether she had been in time. She decided not to think about it.

  1. 1. How many tries did the match take?
  2. 2. Which sentence tells you Grace had watched the job before?
  3. 3. How many steps did Grace climb?
  4. 4. Quote the words that show how hard the climb was.

LessonPrint · RF.3.4 · Set 3 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Read for Sense

Set 3. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Ninety-two. 2. "It took her three weeks and eleven phone calls to find the new address." 3. Every Thursday. 4. "Because the day I stop writing is the day she is really gone."
  2. 2.1. Four. 2. "She trimmed the wick the way she had watched a hundred times." 3. Ninety-seven. 4. "Her arms shook so much on the second trip that she had to sit down halfway."

More practice for RF.3.4

Read Grade 3 text at a sensible pace with expression, and fix your own errors.

Teaching this next? Fluency That Shows Understanding is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 3 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RF.3.4 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.