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Summarise a Literary Text is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on summarising without retelling, aligned to Common Core standard RL.5.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 18 of them with 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 11 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 18 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.

Summarise a Literary Text

RL.5.2

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. Summarise this myth.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Refusal

The rule was that everyone in Year Six performed at the leavers' assembly. Kemi told Mr Adeyemi she would not. Not could not — would not. He asked why. She said that if she explained, he would try to solve it, and it was not a problem to be solved. It was a decision. He could have made her. Instead he asked whether she would run the sound desk, which nobody had volunteered for and which meant she would be there for every rehearsal. She said yes. At the assembly she was at the back, in the dark, and every cue was perfect. Her mother asked afterwards why she had not been in it. Kemi said she had been.

  1. 1. Summarise this story.

LessonPrint · RL.5.2 · Set 11 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Summarise a Literary Text

Set 11. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The gods gave Pandora every gift including curiosity and a jar she must not open; when she finally did, every trouble escaped and only hope stayed in.
  2. 2.1. Kemi refused to perform at the leavers' assembly, her teacher offered her the sound desk instead, and she ran it perfectly and counted herself as having taken part.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.5.2 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.