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Reading a Grade 4 Story is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on reading a whole Grade 4 text and answering across it, aligned to Common Core standard RL.4.10. 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 12 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 4 Story

RL.4.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Daedalus and Icarus

Daedalus was the finest craftsman in the world, and King Minos kept him prisoner because of it. He and his son Icarus were shut in a tower above the sea. Daedalus watched the gulls for a summer. Then he gathered feathers, laid them in rows from short to long, and bound them with wax and thread into two pairs of wings. "Fly in the middle," he told Icarus. "Too low and the sea spray soaks the feathers. Too high and the sun softens the wax." They rose from the tower together. For a while Icarus followed exactly. Then the boy found that he could climb. He forgot the tower, the sea, the warning. He went up, and up, until the wax ran and the feathers came away one at a time and the sky let go of him. Daedalus flew on alone. He never made anything again.

  1. 1. What do Daedalus's actions after the fall tell you about him?
  2. 2. Describe Icarus in depth, using specific details from the text.
  3. 3. Summarise this myth.
  4. 4. Determine a theme of this myth and support it from the text.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Arachne

Arachne could weave. Shepherds left their flocks to watch her hands. She was asked once whether the goddess Athene had taught her. "Nobody taught me," she said. "Let Athene weave against me and we shall see who learned from whom." An old woman at the edge of the crowd advised her to take it back. Arachne laughed at her. The old woman straightened up and was Athene. They wove for a day. Athene's cloth showed the gods in glory. Arachne's showed the gods behaving badly, and it was — everyone could see it — the better work. Athene tore it to pieces. Then she touched Arachne's forehead and made her into a spider, so that she could go on weaving for ever and nobody would ever look.

  1. 1. Whose cloth was better?
  2. 2. What was Arachne famous for?
  3. 3. Who was the old woman at the edge of the crowd?
  4. 4. Describe Arachne in depth, using specific details from the text.

LessonPrint · RL.4.10 · Set 12 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Grade 4 Story

Set 12. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. "He never made anything again" — his skill was what cost him his son, and he gave it up. 2. He begins obedient — "Icarus followed exactly" — then, discovering he can climb, forgets the tower, the sea and the warning. 3. Imprisoned by Minos, Daedalus built wings of feather and wax, warned Icarus to fly in the middle, and lost him when the boy flew too high. 4. Ignoring a warning in the excitement of a new power destroys you — Icarus forgot the warning and the wax ran.
  2. 2.1. Arachne's — everyone could see it. 2. Weaving — shepherds left their flocks to watch her. 3. The goddess Athene. 4. Supremely skilled and unwilling to defer — she claims nobody taught her, challenges a goddess, and laughs at a warning.

More practice for RL.4.10

Read and understand Grade 4-5 stories, plays and poems by the year's end.

Teaching this next? Reading Grade 4 Literature is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 4 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.4.10 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.