Skip to content
LessonPrint

What Each Text Adds is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on finding what one text gives that the other does not, aligned to Common Core standard RI.3.9. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 23 of them with 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.

Next set

One paper per pupil

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 23 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.

What Each Text Adds

RI.3.9

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Why Swallows Leave

Swallows do not leave Britain because of the cold. They leave because of the insects. A swallow eats flying insects, and it catches them in the air. In October the insects disappear, and a bird that eats nothing else has to follow the food. So swallows fly to southern Africa: about six thousand miles, taking roughly six weeks. They travel by day and feed as they go. They lose about a third of their body weight on the way. Many do not arrive. The following spring they return, and a swallow will often nest in the very barn it hatched in.

  1. 1. How is it different from a salmon's journey?
  2. 2. How is a swallow's migration like a salmon's journey?
2.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. How is a lock different from a lift?
  2. 2. How is a lock like a lift?

LessonPrint · RI.3.9 · Set 17 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What Each Text Adds

Set 17. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The swallow follows food and returns each year; a salmon returns once, to breed. 2. Both are long, regular journeys driven by what the animal needs to survive.
  2. 2.1. A lock is raised by water flowing in under gravity; a lift is pulled by a motor. 2. Both raise something between levels in an enclosed chamber — a lock raises a boat.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.3.9 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.