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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 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. 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.

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. How is the salmon's journey harder than the swallow's?
  2. 2. How is the salmon's journey like the swallow's?
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 like a lift?
  2. 2. How is a lock different from a lift?

LessonPrint · RI.3.9 · Set 3 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What Each Text Adds

Set 3. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The salmon climbs upstream without eating and usually dies afterwards; the swallow feeds as it goes and returns each year. 2. Both are long journeys back to the exact place the animal was born.
  2. 2.1. Both raise something between levels in an enclosed chamber — a lock raises a boat. 2. A lock is raised by water flowing in under gravity; a lift is pulled by a motor.

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