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Reading a Grade 3 Fact Text is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on reading a whole information text and answering across it, aligned to Common Core standard RI.3.10. 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 22 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.

Reading a Grade 3 Fact Text

RI.3.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

How a Canal Lock Works

A canal cannot run uphill. Where the land rises, engineers build a lock: a chamber with a gate at each end. A boat going uphill enters the lock through the lower gate. The gate closes behind it. Sluices in the upper gate are opened. Water flows in from the higher stretch of canal, and the boat rises with it. No pump is needed, because the water comes down by gravity. When the water inside matches the level above, the upper gate can be opened and the boat moves on. Going downhill, everything runs the other way: the water is let out, and the boat sinks with it.

  1. 1. The author says no pump is needed. What reason is given?
  2. 2. Which gate does a boat going uphill enter through?
  3. 3. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
  4. 4. What is a lock?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Salmon's Return

A salmon hatches in a river, swims to the sea, and comes back years later to the river it was born in. It finds its way home by smell. Every river carries its own mixture of soil, rock and plants, and a young salmon learns that smell before it leaves. The return journey is upstream. The fish leap waterfalls, sometimes several metres high, and they do not eat once they enter fresh water. Because it is not feeding, a salmon uses up its own body on the climb. By the time it reaches the gravel where it hatched, it is thin and worn. There it lays its eggs. Most Atlantic salmon die soon afterwards.

  1. 1. The author says the salmon arrives thin and worn. What reason is given?
  2. 2. Does a salmon eat on the return journey?
  3. 3. Where does a salmon hatch?
  4. 4. What is the main idea of this text, and which details support it?

LessonPrint · RI.3.10 · Set 22 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Grade 3 Fact Text

Set 22. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The water comes down from the higher stretch by gravity. 2. The lower gate. 3. To explain how a lock works — the whole text is a sequence of causes, not a story or an opinion. 4. A chamber with a gate at each end, built where the land rises.
  2. 2.1. It does not eat in fresh water, so it uses up its own body on the climb. 2. No — it does not eat once it enters fresh water. 3. In a river, in gravel. 4. A salmon returns to its birth river to breed — supported by the smell, the upstream climb and the eggs.

More practice for RI.3.10

Read and understand harder Grade 2-3 information texts on your own.

Teaching this next? Reading Grade 3 Informational Texts is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 3 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.3.10 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.