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Domain-Specific Vocabulary is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on working out a technical word from the text, aligned to Common Core standard RI.5.4. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 24 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 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. 24 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.

Domain-Specific Vocabulary

RI.5.4

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Mill: The Local Paper, June 1980

Whately's Mill closed on Friday with the loss of 214 jobs, the largest single closure in the town since the war. The mill had run since 1868. At its height it employed more than 600. Mr Whately declined to say when he had known the closure was certain. The Chamber of Commerce has called for a public inquiry; the union has called the closure "predictable for two years". The council says a retraining fund will open in September. Four other textile mills within twenty miles have closed since 1975. Nobody the paper spoke to expected the site to be used for textiles again.

  1. 1. What is a "public inquiry"?
  2. 2. What does "declined" mean here?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Why the Rails Are That Far Apart

Standard gauge is 4 feet 8½ inches. It is a strange number, and the reason is historical rather than engineering. Early railways were built by people who had built tramways for collieries, and those had used the wheel spacing of the carts already in use. Nobody chose it; it was inherited. Isambard Kingdom Brunel did choose. He built the Great Western at 7 feet ¼ inch, and by most measures it was better: faster, steadier, and able to carry more. He lost anyway. By the 1840s, more of the network was already standard gauge, and a train cannot run on a track it does not fit. Parliament settled it in 1846. Between 1846 and 1892 the Great Western converted its entire route. The final conversion took a single weekend and about four thousand men. The best design does not always win. The one that connects to everything else does.

  1. 1. What is a "colliery"?
  2. 2. What does "gauge" mean here?

LessonPrint · RI.5.4 · Set 9 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Domain-Specific Vocabulary

Set 9. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. An official investigation held in the open. 2. Refused, politely — he would not say when he had known.
  2. 2.1. A colliery is a coal mine — the carts used there set the early rail spacing. 2. The distance between the two rails.

More practice for RI.5.4

Work out academic and subject vocabulary from this text.

Teaching this next? Academic Vocabulary in a Grade 5 Topic is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 5 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.5.4 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.