Skip to content
LessonPrint

Reading a Grade 5 Fact Text is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on reading a whole argued text and answering across it, aligned to Common Core standard RI.5.10. 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 19 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.

Reading a Grade 5 Fact Text

RI.5.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

What Sleep Is For

Sleep is not switching off. Parts of the brain are busier asleep than awake. Two claims are well supported. The first is that sleep consolidates memory: during deep sleep, the day's experiences are replayed and moved from short-term storage into long-term. Interrupt deep sleep and recall of the previous day drops measurably. The second is that sleep clears waste. The spaces between brain cells widen during sleep, and fluid washes through, removing proteins that build up while awake. A third claim — that a particular number of hours suits everybody — is not supported. Need varies with age and between individuals, and self-reported sleep is unreliable. Teenagers are a special case. Their body clocks genuinely shift later at puberty, which is a biological fact rather than a preference, and school start times mostly ignore it.

  1. 1. What happens to the spaces between brain cells during sleep?
  2. 2. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
  3. 3. What happens to recall when deep sleep is interrupted?
  4. 4. Determine two main ideas of this text and explain how details support each.
2.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. When was Old London Bridge demolished?
  2. 2. How many arches did Old London Bridge have?
  3. 3. Determine two main ideas of this text and explain how details support each.
  4. 4. The text gives three reasons for the freezes. Identify them and say which is treated as least important.

LessonPrint · RI.5.10 · Set 19 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Grade 5 Fact Text

Set 19. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. They widen, and fluid washes through. 2. To separate what is well supported from what is not — each claim is labelled before its evidence. 3. It drops measurably. 4. First, sleep consolidates memory — supported by the replay and the drop in recall. Second, sleep clears waste — supported by the widening spaces and the fluid.
  2. 2.1. 1831. 2. Nineteen. 3. First, the bridge acted as a weir and slowed the water — supported by the nineteen arches. Second, the river's shape mattered — supported by the shallower, wider channel and the embankments. 4. The bridge as a weir, the shallow wide channel, and a colder climate — the climate is called "part of it, and not most of it".

More practice for RI.5.10

Read and understand harder Grade 4-5 information texts on your own.

Teaching this next? Reading Grade 5 Informational Texts is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 5 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.5.10 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.