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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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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.

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

LessonPrint · RI.5.10 · Set 6 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Following a Weighed Argument

Set 6. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. 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.
  2. 2.1. The wide piers made the bridge a weir, which slowed the water upstream almost to a standstill, and still water freezes. 2. To show the cause was the river's shape, not the temperature — even more cold would not refreeze it now. 3. 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.

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