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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 25 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.

Pandora

The gods made Pandora and gave her, between them, everything: beauty, skill, a voice, curiosity. They also gave her a jar, and told her not to open it. They did not say what was in it. She kept it for a long time. The story is usually told as though she opened it immediately. She did not. When she did lift the lid, out came sickness, hunger, grief and every trouble that has since been ordinary. She got the lid back on with one thing still inside. That thing was hope. And people have argued for three thousand years about whether keeping it in was a mercy or the cruellest part of all.

  1. 1. Quote accurately the words that correct the usual telling.
  2. 2. Quote the phrase that states the three-thousand-year dispute.
  3. 3. What was left inside the jar?
  4. 4. Were the gods explicit about what was inside?
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 accurately the phrase that shows how extraordinary his playing was.
  2. 2. Quote the words that show what he had to go on.
  3. 3. How close to the daylight was he when he turned?
  4. 4. What was the king's condition?

LessonPrint · RF.5.4 · Set 25 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Read Closely and Quote

Set 25. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. "The story is usually told as though she opened it immediately. She did not." 2. "whether keeping it in was a mercy or the cruellest part of all". 3. Hope. 4. No — they told her not to open it but did not say what was in it.
  2. 2.1. "rivers changed course to listen". 2. "he had only the king's word". 3. Ten paces. 4. That Orpheus must not look back until both of them stood in the light.

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.