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Reading a Grade 3 Story is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on reading a whole Grade 3 text and answering across it, aligned to Common Core standard RL.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 17 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 Story

RL.3.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.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. What is this scene really about?
  2. 2. How does Jon respond to Priya's second idea?
  3. 3. What is the only light in the room?
  4. 4. Where is this scene set?
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. "The light swung out across the water" — can light swing? What does it mean?
  2. 2. Why did she make the trip twice?
  3. 3. "She had watched a hundred times" — is this literal? What does it mean?
  4. 4. What is the central message of this story?

LessonPrint · RL.3.10 · Set 17 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Grade 3 Story

Set 17. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. How much you can trust your own memory of something ordinary. 2. He puts the lid down slowly and says it is worse — he sees what it would mean. 3. A single desk lamp. 4. The museum store room, at night.
  2. 2.1. The beam turned, sweeping across the sea like something swinging. 2. The can was too heavy to lift full. 3. Nonliteral. It means she had watched very many times, not exactly a hundred. 4. Doing the job matters even when you never find out whether it was enough.

More practice for RL.3.10

Read and understand harder Grade 2-3 stories, plays and poems on your own.

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

All Grade 3 worksheets

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