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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.

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Following a Weighed Argument

RI.5.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Canals and Railways

Between 1760 and 1830 Britain built about four thousand miles of canal. Within forty years of that, most of it was losing money. A canal boat carried thirty tons behind one horse, where a cart carried two. That was transformative for coal and stone, which are heavy, cheap and not in a hurry. But a canal cannot climb without locks, cannot be built where there is no water, and freezes. A boat averaged three miles an hour. The railways did not beat canals on cost per ton at first. They beat them on speed, on reliability, and on where they could go — a railway can cross a watershed a canal cannot. Many canal companies were bought by railway companies, sometimes specifically in order to close them. By 1900 most of the network carried nothing. Some of it is now used more than it ever was, by people on holiday.

  1. 1. Summarise this text.
  2. 2. Explain the relationship between a canal's limitations and the railways' success.
  3. 3. Why would a railway company buy a canal in order to close it?
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. Explain the relationship between the size of the network and Brunel's defeat.
  2. 2. Why does the text say nobody chose standard gauge?
  3. 3. Summarise this text.

LessonPrint · RI.5.10 · Set 19 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Weighed Argument

Set 19. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Canals moved heavy goods fifteen times more efficiently than carts, but locks, water and three miles an hour lost to railways, and the network now carries holidaymakers. 2. Locks, water supply, freezing and three miles an hour were limits a railway did not share, so railways won on reliability and reach. 3. To remove a competitor on the same route.
  2. 2.1. More track was already standard gauge, and since a train cannot run on a track it does not fit, the bigger network won. 2. Because it came from cart wheel spacing that was already in use before railways existed. 3. Standard gauge was inherited from colliery carts, Brunel's wider gauge was better but incompatible, and the Great Western converted its whole route by 1892.

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