Skip to content
LessonPrint

Summarise an Argued Text is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on summarising a text that makes several claims, aligned to Common Core standard RI.5.2. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 21 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 22 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next set

One paper per pupil

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 21 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 an Argued Text

RI.5.2

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

Can You Do Two Things at Once?

People say they multitask. Mostly they do not. The brain can run two tasks together only if at least one is automatic. Walking and talking works because walking is automatic for an adult. Reading and listening to speech does not, because both need the same language system. What feels like multitasking is usually rapid switching. Each switch costs time — a fraction of a second to disengage and re-engage — and the costs add up. In experiments, people doing two tasks alternately take substantially longer in total than doing them one after the other, and make more errors. They also do not notice. Switching feels efficient because you are busy the whole time. The practical conclusion is unpopular but consistent: for anything demanding, doing one thing at a time is faster.

  1. 1. Summarise this text.

LessonPrint · RI.5.2 · Set 22 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Summarise an Argued Text

Set 22. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. British textiles lost four fifths of its jobs to lower foreign wages, ageing machinery and a concentration that turned each closure into a town's whole economy.
  2. 2.1. Genuine multitasking needs one automatic task; what feels like it is rapid switching, which costs time and accuracy without feeling like it does.

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