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Information in Other Forms is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on taking meaning from visual and quantitative material, aligned to Common Core standard SL.5.2. 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 14 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.

Information in Other Forms

SL.5.2

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. What would a diagram for this text need to compare?
  2. 2. How would a diagram of Old London Bridge help a reader?
  3. 3. Explain the relationship between the bridge's piers and the freezing.
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 would an illustration of the final conversion need to convey?
  2. 2. Explain the relationship between the size of the network and Brunel's defeat.
  3. 3. How would a diagram of the two gauges help?

LessonPrint · SL.5.2 · Set 14 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Information in Other Forms

Set 14. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The old wide shallow river with its many-piered bridge against the modern narrow, deep, embanked one. 2. It could show how much of the channel the nineteen piers blocked, which is the whole argument. 3. The wide piers made the bridge a weir, which slowed the water upstream almost to a standstill, and still water freezes.
  2. 2.1. Four thousand men moving one rail inwards along an entire route in a weekend. 2. More track was already standard gauge, and since a train cannot run on a track it does not fit, the bigger network won. 3. It would show the difference between 4 feet 8½ inches and 7 feet ¼ inch, which numbers alone do not convey.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to SL.5.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.