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Following a Weighed Argument is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on holding several competing claims together while reading, aligned to Common Core standard RI.5.10. 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 18 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.

Following a Weighed Argument

RI.5.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Can You Do Two Things at Once?

People say they multitask. Mostly they do not. The brain can run two tasks together only if at least one is automatic. Walking and talking works because walking is automatic for an adult. Reading and listening to speech does not, because both need the same language system. What feels like multitasking is usually rapid switching. Each switch costs time — a fraction of a second to disengage and re-engage — and the costs add up. In experiments, people doing two tasks alternately take substantially longer in total than doing them one after the other, and make more errors. They also do not notice. Switching feels efficient because you are busy the whole time. The practical conclusion is unpopular but consistent: for anything demanding, doing one thing at a time is faster.

  1. 1. Explain the relationship between switching and the errors people make.
  2. 2. Summarise this text.
  3. 3. Why does the author say the conclusion is "unpopular"?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Two Plants, Two Histories

Tea and coffee are both leaves or seeds steeped in hot water, and both became national habits. How they got there could hardly be more different. Tea came to Britain through a monopoly. The East India Company controlled the trade for nearly two centuries, and the government taxed it so heavily that by the 1770s most tea drunk in Britain had been smuggled. When the tax was cut in 1784, smuggling collapsed almost overnight. Coffee spread through places rather than trade. The coffee house arrived in Britain in the 1650s and became somewhere to read newspapers and argue. Lloyd's of London and the London Stock Exchange both began in one. Tea won the home; coffee won the meeting. Neither plant grows in Britain. Both habits are entirely imported, and both are now so ordinary that they are thought of as native.

  1. 1. Explain the relationship between the tax and the smuggling.
  2. 2. Why does the text end by saying both are thought of as native?
  3. 3. Summarise this text.

LessonPrint · RI.5.10 · Set 18 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Weighed Argument

Set 18. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Each switch costs time to disengage and re-engage, and alternating tasks produces both longer times and more errors. 2. Genuine multitasking needs one automatic task; what feels like it is rapid switching, which costs time and accuracy without feeling like it does. 3. Because people believe they multitask well and the evidence says otherwise.
  2. 2.1. The tax was so heavy that most tea was smuggled; cutting it in 1784 removed the reason and smuggling collapsed. 2. To make the point that an imported habit can become invisible as an import. 3. Tea reached Britain through a taxed monopoly that produced mass smuggling; coffee spread through coffee houses that became institutions — and neither plant grows here.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.5.10 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.