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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 24 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 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. Summarise this account.

LessonPrint · RL.5.2 · Set 24 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Summarise a Literary Text

Set 24. 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. Whately funded the mill privately for eleven years, sold his house in 1979, kept the danger quiet to stop staff leaving, and told them only when he could not pay.

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