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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 16 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 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. How would a diagram of the two gauges help?
  2. 2. Explain the relationship between the size of the network and Brunel's defeat.
  3. 3. What would an illustration of the final conversion need to convey?
2.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. What would a diagram for this text most usefully compare?
  2. 2. Explain the relationship between a canal's limitations and the railways' success.
  3. 3. How would a map help a reader of this text?

LessonPrint · SL.5.2 · Set 16 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Information in Other Forms

Set 16. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. It would show the difference between 4 feet 8½ inches and 7 feet ¼ inch, which numbers alone do not convey. 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. Four thousand men moving one rail inwards along an entire route in a weekend.
  2. 2.1. One horse pulling thirty tons on water against two tons on a road. 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. It could show where canals could and could not go, which is the argument about watersheds.

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