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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 6 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.

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. How would a map help a reader of this text?
  2. 2. Explain the relationship between a canal's limitations and the railways' success.
  3. 3. What would a diagram for this text most usefully compare?

LessonPrint · SL.5.2 · Set 6 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Information in Other Forms

Set 6. 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. It could show where canals could and could not go, which is the argument about watersheds. 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. One horse pulling thirty tons on water against two tons on a road.

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