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

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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: Ivy Sallow's Account

We knew by the thread. You cannot work a loom for twenty-two years and not notice when the good cotton stops coming. From about the March, it was the cheap stuff, and it broke. So we knew something. What we did not know was how long we had, and that is the part I mind. I could have been looking. My sister found work in Derby that spring and asked me twice. I said the mill would see me out. He stood on a crate on the Friday and told us. Somebody asked how long he had known. He said he would rather not say. That was the answer, really.

  1. 1. What did Ivy tell her sister?
  2. 2. Quote the exchange that closes the account.
  3. 3. Quote accurately the words in which Ivy states her grievance.
  4. 4. How long had Ivy worked a loom?
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. Why could Orpheus not hear Eurydice behind him?
  2. 2. Quote accurately the phrase that shows how extraordinary his playing was.
  3. 3. Quote the words that show what he had to go on.
  4. 4. How close to the daylight was he when he turned?

LessonPrint · RF.5.4 · Set 23 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Read Closely and Quote

Set 23. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. That the mill would see her out. 2. "Somebody asked how long he had known. He said he would rather not say." 3. "What we did not know was how long we had, and that is the part I mind." 4. Twenty-two years.
  2. 2.1. The dead make no footsteps. 2. "rivers changed course to listen". 3. "he had only the king's word". 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.