Skip to content
LessonPrint

Summarise What You Heard is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on summarising a text or presentation accurately, aligned to Common Core standard SL.5.2. 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 24 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.

Summarise What You Heard

SL.5.2

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Why the Rails Are That Far Apart

Standard gauge is 4 feet 8½ inches. It is a strange number, and the reason is historical rather than engineering. Early railways were built by people who had built tramways for collieries, and those had used the wheel spacing of the carts already in use. Nobody chose it; it was inherited. Isambard Kingdom Brunel did choose. He built the Great Western at 7 feet ¼ inch, and by most measures it was better: faster, steadier, and able to carry more. He lost anyway. By the 1840s, more of the network was already standard gauge, and a train cannot run on a track it does not fit. Parliament settled it in 1846. Between 1846 and 1892 the Great Western converted its entire route. The final conversion took a single weekend and about four thousand men. The best design does not always win. The one that connects to everything else does.

  1. 1. What gauge did Brunel choose?
  2. 2. Determine two main ideas of this text and explain how details support each.
  3. 3. 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. When can the brain genuinely run two tasks together?
  2. 2. Determine two main ideas of this text and explain how details support each.
  3. 3. What does each switch cost?

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

Answer key — Summarise What You Heard

Set 24. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. 7 feet ¼ inch. 2. First, standard gauge was inherited, not designed — supported by the colliery carts. Second, compatibility beat quality — supported by Brunel losing despite a better gauge. 3. Standard gauge was inherited from colliery carts, Brunel's wider gauge was better but incompatible, and the Great Western converted its whole route by 1892.
  2. 2.1. Only if at least one of them is automatic. 2. First, real multitasking needs an automatic task — supported by walking and talking. Second, switching costs time and accuracy — supported by the experimental result. 3. A fraction of a second to disengage and re-engage.

More practice for SL.5.2

Summarise a text or presentation you heard or watched.

Teaching this next? Summarising a Text Read Aloud is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 5 worksheets

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