Skip to content
LessonPrint

Read Closely and Quote is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on reading a Grade 5 text well enough to quote it accurately, aligned to Common Core standard RF.5.4. 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.

Set 14 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next setLesson plan

One paper per pupil

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Read Closely and Quote

RF.5.4

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Mill: Mr Whately's Account

I did not close the mill. The mill closed. For eleven years I put my own money in. In 1979 I sold my house and moved into the office above the weaving floor, and nobody knew that but my accountant. People say I should have told them earlier. I have thought about that more than they have. If I had said in January that we might not last the year, half the workforce would have left by February, and then we certainly would not have. I held on until the day I could not pay them. Then I told them. I have been told this was cowardice. I would call it arithmetic.

  1. 1. How long did Mr Whately put his own money into the mill?
  2. 2. Quote the phrase in which he names what he has been accused of.
  3. 3. What did he do in 1979?
  4. 4. When did he tell the workforce?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Orpheus Looks Back

Orpheus played so well that rivers changed course to listen. When his wife Eurydice died, he went down to argue with the dead. He played to the ferryman, who took him free. He played to the three-headed dog, which lay down. He played to the king of the underworld, who wept, and who had never wept. The king gave one condition. Eurydice would follow him up, and he must not look back until both of them stood in the light. He climbed for a day. He could not hear her footsteps — the dead make none — and he had only the king's word. Ten paces from the daylight, he turned round. She was there. That was the last he saw of her.

  1. 1. Quote the words that show what he had to go on.
  2. 2. What was the king's condition?
  3. 3. Why could Orpheus not hear Eurydice behind him?
  4. 4. How close to the daylight was he when he turned?

LessonPrint · RF.5.4 · Set 14 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Read Closely and Quote

Set 14. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Eleven years. 2. "I have been told this was cowardice." 3. Sold his house and moved into the office above the weaving floor. 4. The day he could not pay them.
  2. 2.1. "he had only the king's word". 2. That Orpheus must not look back until both of them stood in the light. 3. The dead make no footsteps. 4. Ten paces.

More practice for RF.5.4

Read Grade 5 text fluently and expressively, self-correcting where needed.

Teaching this next? Fluency That Carries Meaning is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 5 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RF.5.4 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.