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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.

Why the Thames Froze

Between 1309 and 1814 the Thames froze hard enough to walk on at least twenty-four times. Since 1814 it has not once. The usual explanation is that the climate has warmed. That is part of it, and not most of it. Old London Bridge had nineteen arches on wide stone piers. The piers took up so much of the channel that the bridge acted as a weir, slowing the water upstream almost to a standstill. Still water freezes; moving water does not. The river was also shallower and wider then, spreading over land that has since been embanked. Shallow water loses heat faster. Old London Bridge was demolished in 1831. The embankments were built between 1862 and 1874. The river that flows through London now is narrower, deeper and faster than the one that froze — and it would not freeze in a colder winter than any of those.

  1. 1. Summarise this text.
  2. 2. Explain the relationship between the bridge's piers and the freezing.
  3. 3. Why does the last sentence mention a colder winter?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

What Happened to the Textile Towns

Between 1965 and 1990 the British textile industry lost roughly four fifths of its jobs. Three causes are usually given, and they are not equally weighted. Cost is the one most often cited. Spinning and weaving are labour-intensive, and wages in the countries that took the work were a fraction of British wages. This explains a great deal. Investment matters too. Much British machinery dated from before the war. Where firms did re-equip — and some did — they survived longer, which suggests the cost argument is not the whole story. The third cause is the hardest to see: the industry was concentrated. A car plant closing takes a town's largest employer; a mill closing often took its only one, along with the suppliers and the shops that depended on it. That concentration is why the closures show up in the population figures of particular towns and not in national ones.

  1. 1. Why does the author say the third cause is hardest to see?
  2. 2. Summarise this text.
  3. 3. Explain the relationship between concentration and the population figures.

LessonPrint · RI.5.10 · Set 5 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Weighed Argument

Set 5. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The Thames froze two dozen times before 1814 because Old London Bridge dammed it and the river was shallow and wide; demolition and embankment made it too fast and deep to freeze. 2. The wide piers made the bridge a weir, which slowed the water upstream almost to a standstill, and still water freezes. 3. To show the cause was the river's shape, not the temperature — even more cold would not refreeze it now.
  2. 2.1. Because it does not appear in national figures at all — only in particular towns'. 2. British textiles lost four fifths of its jobs to lower foreign wages, ageing machinery and a concentration that turned each closure into a town's whole economy. 3. Because mills were the only employer in particular towns, the losses show in those towns' populations rather than in national ones.

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