Summarise an Information Text is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on summarising without copying the opening sentence, aligned to Common Core standard RI.4.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 19 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 1 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
19 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.
Summarise an Information Text
RI.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. Summarise this text.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
Lichen
A lichen is not one organism. It is a fungus and an alga living as one body.
The fungus provides the structure and holds water. The alga photosynthesises and makes sugar. Separated, the fungus starves and the alga dries out.
Because it needs no soil, a lichen can grow on bare rock, on gravestones and on the roofs of cars that have not moved for a decade.
Lichens grow extremely slowly — some crustose species less than a millimetre a year. Scientists use that rate to date rock surfaces, a method called lichenometry.
Lichens also absorb whatever is in the air. Where the air is dirty, they disappear, which makes them a living measure of pollution.
1. Summarise this text.
LessonPrint · RI.4.2 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Summarise an Information Text
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
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.
2.1. A lichen is a fungus and an alga living as one body, able to grow on bare rock, so slow it can date surfaces and so sensitive it measures air pollution.
Questions about Summarise an Information Text
What does the Summarise an Information Text worksheet cover?
It practises summarising without copying the opening sentence — 2 questions for Grade 4, all on Common Core RI.4.2: State the main idea, show the details behind it, and summarise. The instruction to pupils is “Read the text, then answer the questions”, and the answer key follows on the next sheet.
Which Common Core standard does Summarise an Information Text practise?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.2 — RI.4.2, in the Reading: Informational Text domain for Grade 4. The published standard reads: “Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
Summarise an Information Text is written for Grade 4, typically ages 9-10. It is one of the sheets on RI.4.2, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does Summarise an Information Text come with an answer key?
Yes. All 2 answers are generated from the same problems as the questions, so the key cannot drift out of step with the sheet. It starts on a fresh sheet of paper, after the questions, so it is not handed out with the class by accident.
How many different versions of Summarise an Information Text can I print?
25 versions, of which 19 ask genuinely different questions — this skill does not have 25 distinct questions to give, so the rest reorder them and no two pupils still share a paper. Set 1 downloads all 25 as one PDF.
Is Summarise an Information Text free to print and photocopy?
Yes. Summarise an Information Text, its answer key and its 25 versions are free to print and photocopy for your own class, with no account, no email capture and no subscription at the download step. Please do not resell them or republish them as your own.
More practice for RI.4.2
State the main idea, show the details behind it, and summarise.