Skip to content
LessonPrint

Weighing the Evidence is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on judging how well a claim is supported, aligned to Common Core standard RI.5.8. 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 23 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. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Weighing the Evidence

RI.5.8

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Mill: The Local Paper, June 1980

Whately's Mill closed on Friday with the loss of 214 jobs, the largest single closure in the town since the war. The mill had run since 1868. At its height it employed more than 600. Mr Whately declined to say when he had known the closure was certain. The Chamber of Commerce has called for a public inquiry; the union has called the closure "predictable for two years". The council says a retraining fund will open in September. Four other textile mills within twenty miles have closed since 1975. Nobody the paper spoke to expected the site to be used for textiles again.

  1. 1. What is this report's purpose, and how does it differ from the accounts?
  2. 2. Two organisations react. Identify which reason belongs to which.
2.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. The text makes two claims. Identify which evidence supports which.
  2. 2. What is the author's purpose, and how do you know?

LessonPrint · RI.5.8 · Set 23 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Weighing the Evidence

Set 23. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. To record what happened and who said what — it reports the dispute rather than taking a side. 2. The Chamber of Commerce wants an inquiry; the union claims the closure was predictable for two years.
  2. 2.1. That the gauge was inherited — the colliery carts. That compatibility wins — the 1846 Act and the conversion of the whole Great Western. 2. To explain why a worse standard won — the final two lines state the general point.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.5.8 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.