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Self-Correct as You Read is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on going back over an information text to fix understanding, aligned to Common Core standard RF.4.4. 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.

Self-Correct as You Read

RF.4.4

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

How Penicillin Was Found

In 1928 Alexander Fleming went on holiday and left a stack of dishes on a bench. Each held a colony of bacteria. When he came back, one dish had a spot of mould on it. Around the mould was a clear ring where the bacteria had died. Fleming realised the mould was producing something that killed bacteria. He named it penicillin and published a paper. Almost nobody noticed. Ten years later, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain read that paper and tried to make penicillin in quantity. That turned out to be the hard part: it took two thousand litres of mould fluid to treat one patient. By 1944 the problem had been solved and penicillin was reaching soldiers in the field.

  1. 1. What does "in quantity" mean here?
  2. 2. How much mould fluid did it take to treat one patient?
  3. 3. In what year did Fleming notice the mould?
  4. 4. What is a "colony" of bacteria?
2.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. Which material stopped the rays?
  2. 2. In what year did Röntgen notice the glow?
  3. 3. What does "patent" mean?
  4. 4. What is a "photographic plate"?

LessonPrint · RF.4.4 · Set 5 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Self-Correct as You Read

Set 5. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. In quantity means in large enough amounts to treat patients — two thousand litres of mould fluid for one. 2. Two thousand litres. 3. 1928. 4. A group of bacteria growing together in one place.
  2. 2.1. Metal. 2. 1895. 3. To patent is to register an invention so only you may profit from it — Rontgen refused to. 4. A photographic plate is the light-sensitive sheet the picture of the hand was recorded on.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RF.4.4 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.