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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.

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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 Happened to the Textile Towns

Between 1965 and 1990 the British textile industry lost roughly four fifths of its jobs. Three causes are usually given, and they are not equally weighted. Cost is the one most often cited. Spinning and weaving are labour-intensive, and wages in the countries that took the work were a fraction of British wages. This explains a great deal. Investment matters too. Much British machinery dated from before the war. Where firms did re-equip — and some did — they survived longer, which suggests the cost argument is not the whole story. The third cause is the hardest to see: the industry was concentrated. A car plant closing takes a town's largest employer; a mill closing often took its only one, along with the suppliers and the shops that depended on it. That concentration is why the closures show up in the population figures of particular towns and not in national ones.

  1. 1. Determine two main ideas of this text and explain how details support each.
  2. 2. What did a mill closing often take with it?
  3. 3. How old was much of the British machinery?
  4. 4. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
2.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 is the author's purpose, and how do you know?
  2. 2. What happens to recall when deep sleep is interrupted?
  3. 3. Three claims are made. Identify which evidence supports which, and which has none.
  4. 4. What happens to the spaces between brain cells during sleep?

LessonPrint · RI.5.10 · Set 25 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Grade 5 Fact Text

Set 25. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. First, cost was the largest but not the only cause — supported by firms that re-equipped surviving longer. Second, concentration made the damage local — supported by the population figures. 2. The town's only employer, plus the suppliers and shops that depended on it. 3. It dated from before the war. 4. To weigh three explanations rather than assert one — each is introduced and then qualified.
  2. 2.1. To separate what is well supported from what is not — each claim is labelled before its evidence. 2. It drops measurably. 3. Memory: the replay and the recall drop. Waste: the widening spaces and fluid. The fixed number of hours has no support and is rejected. 4. They widen, and fluid washes through.

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.