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Paraphrase What You Heard is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on putting part of a text into your own words, aligned to Common Core standard SL.4.2. 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 5 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.

Paraphrase What You Heard

SL.4.2

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Accidental Photograph

In 1895 Wilhelm Röntgen was working with a covered tube in a darkened room when he noticed a screen across the laboratory glowing. Something was passing through the cover and crossing the room. He did not know what it was, so he called it X — the unknown. He spent seven weeks alone in the laboratory testing it. He put wood, rubber and metal in the way. Metal stopped it; the rest did not. Then he asked his wife to put her hand between the tube and a photographic plate. The picture showed the bones of her hand and her wedding ring. Within a year, X-rays were being used in hospitals. Röntgen refused to patent them.

  1. 1. Summarise this text.
  2. 2. In what year did Röntgen notice the glow?
  3. 3. Determine the main idea of this text and explain how key details support it.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Wolves and the Rivers

Wolves were shot out of Yellowstone by 1926. Fourteen were brought back in 1995. With no wolves, elk had grazed the valleys freely for seventy years. Young willow and aspen were eaten as soon as they grew. The wolves killed some elk. More importantly, they changed where elk would stand still. Open valley floors became dangerous, so the elk stopped lingering there. Willow and aspen grew back along the rivers. Beavers, which need willow, returned. Their dams made ponds. Roots held the banks. The rivers narrowed, deepened and moved less. Some researchers describe this as wolves changing the shape of rivers, though others argue the effect has been overstated.

  1. 1. Which trees grew back along the rivers?
  2. 2. Determine the main idea of this text and explain how key details support it.
  3. 3. When were wolves brought back to Yellowstone?

LessonPrint · SL.4.2 · Set 5 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Paraphrase What You Heard

Set 5. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Röntgen noticed an unexplained glow in 1895, tested it alone for seven weeks, photographed his wife's hand bones, and within a year hospitals were using X-rays. 2. 1895. 3. An accidental observation became a medical tool within a year — supported by the seven weeks of testing and the hospital use.
  2. 2.1. Willow and aspen. 2. Returning wolves changed the whole valley through a chain of effects — supported by the elk behaviour, the trees, the beavers and the rivers. 3. 1995.

More practice for SL.4.2

Put part of what you heard or saw into your own words.

Teaching this next? Paraphrasing What You Heard is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

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Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to SL.4.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.