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 3 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. What did he do in 1979?
  3. 3. Quote the phrase in which he names what he has been accused of.
  4. 4. Quote accurately the words in which he defends his silence.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

What We Kept

Stanza one: We kept the table, which was too big, and the clock, which had never gone, and a tin of buttons nobody wanted, and the habit of turning lights off. Stanza two: We gave away the good chairs. We gave away the china, all of it. We gave away the piano to a school because none of us could play. Stanza three: Ten years on, I would not know the chairs if I saw them in a window on a street. But I turn the hall light off behind me every single time, and think of her.

  1. 1. What three objects did the family keep?
  2. 2. Quote accurately the item in the first stanza that is not an object.
  3. 3. Quote the line that shows the given-away things are forgotten.
  4. 4. What does the speaker still do every time?

LessonPrint · RF.5.4 · Set 3 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Read Closely and Quote

Set 3. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Eleven years. 2. Sold his house and moved into the office above the weaving floor. 3. "I have been told this was cowardice." 4. "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."
  2. 2.1. The table, the clock and a tin of buttons. 2. "the habit of turning lights off". 3. "I would not know the chairs if I saw them in a window on a street". 4. Turns the hall light off behind them.

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.