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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 23 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.

The Water Came Up (told by Nell)

I was the one who said it was nothing. The river had been over the path before. Twice that winter. Both times it went down by morning, so when Dad started moving the boxes upstairs I told him he was making a fuss. I went to bed. At two o'clock I woke because my slippers were floating. Everything after that is in pieces. Dad on the stairs with the cat. Water the colour of tea. The sound the fridge made when it went over. We sat on the landing until it got light. Nobody said anything about the boxes. That was worse than if they had.

  1. 1. How many times had the river been over the path that winter?
  2. 2. Determine a theme of this story and support it from the text.
  3. 3. Summarise this story.
  4. 4. What woke Nell at two o'clock?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Lost Ledger

Mr Kaur ran the shop on the corner for forty-one years and never used a till roll. He kept a ledger. Every debt in the village was in it, in pencil, and every settlement crossed out. Nobody ever asked to see it. Nobody ever queried it. When he retired he handed the ledger to his daughter, who was taking over. She found eleven debts outstanding, some six years old, totalling more than she took in a fortnight. She thought about it for a week. Then she went through the book, tore out those pages, and started a new one with a card machine on the counter. She never told him. He never asked.

  1. 1. How did he record debts?
  2. 2. How long did Mr Kaur run the shop?
  3. 3. Determine a theme of this story and support it from the text.
  4. 4. Summarise this story.

LessonPrint · RL.4.10 · Set 23 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Grade 4 Story

Set 23. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Twice. 2. Being wrong is worse when nobody blames you — "That was worse than if they had." 3. Nell told her father the rising river was nothing, woke at two to find the house flooded, and sat on the landing till dawn with nobody mentioning it. 4. Her slippers were floating.
  2. 2.1. In pencil, in a ledger, with settlements crossed out. 2. Forty-one years. 3. Ending something kindly can mean saying nothing — she tore out the pages and "never told him". 4. Mr Kaur ran his shop on a pencil ledger for forty-one years; his daughter inherited eleven old debts, wrote them off, and never told him.

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.