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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 4 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.

Morse Code

Morse code turns every letter into a pattern of short and long signals: dots and dashes. The commonest letters were given the shortest patterns. E is one dot. T is one dash. Q, which is rare, is dash-dash-dot-dash. Because of that choice, an average message is much shorter than it would be otherwise. A message can be sent as sound, as light, or as taps on a pipe. That is why it survived so long: it needs almost no equipment. Timing carries the meaning. A dash is three times as long as a dot. The gap between letters is three dots long, and between words, seven. SOS was chosen because it is easy to recognise: three dots, three dashes, three dots.

  1. 1. Which is easier to send across a distance, and why?
  2. 2. How is Morse code like braille?

LessonPrint · RI.3.9 · Set 4 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — What Each Text Adds

Set 4. 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. Morse — it can be sent as sound or light, while braille has to be touched. 2. Both were designed so a message could be read without ordinary print.

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