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Summarize an Information Text is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on summarizing 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 students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 14 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 19 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two students have the same paper in front of them.

Summarize an Information Text

RI.4.2

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.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. Summarize this text.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

How Penicillin Was Found

In 1928 Alexander Fleming went on vacation 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 mold on it. Around the mold was a clear ring where the bacteria had died. Fleming realized the mold 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 liters of mold fluid to treat one patient. By 1944 the problem had been solved and penicillin was reaching soldiers in the field.

  1. 1. Summarize this text.

LessonPrint · RI.4.2 · Set 14 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Summarize an Information Text

Set 14. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Wolves returned to Yellowstone in 1995, changed where elk grazed, allowed willow and beavers back, and are credited — with some dispute — with reshaping the rivers.
  2. 2.1. Fleming spotted mold killing bacteria in 1928 and published to no response; Florey and Chain solved the production problem, and by 1944 penicillin reached soldiers.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.4.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.