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Choosing the Representative Image is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on identifying the image that carries a text's meaning, aligned to Common Core standard RL.5.7. 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 9 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.

Choosing the Representative Image

RL.5.7

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Mill: Mr Whately's Account

I did not close the mill. The mill closed. For eleven years I put my own money in. In 1979 I sold my house and moved into the office above the weaving floor, and nobody knew that but my accountant. People say I should have told them earlier. I have thought about that more than they have. If I had said in January that we might not last the year, half the workforce would have left by February, and then we certainly would not have. I held on until the day I could not pay them. Then I told them. I have been told this was cowardice. I would call it arithmetic.

  1. 1. Quote accurately the words in which he defends his silence.
  2. 2. What single image would represent this account, and why?
  3. 3. Quote the phrase in which he names what he has been accused of.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Mill: Ivy Sallow's Account

We knew by the thread. You cannot work a loom for twenty-two years and not notice when the good cotton stops coming. From about the March, it was the cheap stuff, and it broke. So we knew something. What we did not know was how long we had, and that is the part I mind. I could have been looking. My sister found work in Derby that spring and asked me twice. I said the mill would see me out. He stood on a crate on the Friday and told us. Somebody asked how long he had known. He said he would rather not say. That was the answer, really.

  1. 1. What single image would represent this account, and why?
  2. 2. Quote accurately the words in which Ivy states her grievance.
  3. 3. Quote the exchange that closes the account.

LessonPrint · RL.5.7 · Set 9 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Choosing the Representative Image

Set 9. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. "If I had said in January that we might not last the year, half the workforce would have left by February, and then we certainly would not have." 2. The lit office window above a dark weaving floor — he is inside it alone. 3. "I have been told this was cowardice."
  2. 2.1. A broken thread on a loom — it is how they knew, and what the mill came to. 2. "What we did not know was how long we had, and that is the part I mind." 3. "Somebody asked how long he had known. He said he would rather not say."

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.5.7 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.