Following a Weighed Argument is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on holding several competing claims together while reading, aligned to Common Core standard RI.5.10. 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 1 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
Your immune system learns. Meet a disease once and, if you survive it, you are usually protected afterwards. A vaccine gives the lesson without the disease.
The method is old. In eighteenth-century Britain, milkmaids were known not to catch smallpox. Edward Jenner reasoned that the cowpox they caught from cattle was protecting them, and in 1796 he tested it on a boy — a procedure no ethics committee would permit now.
A modern vaccine shows the immune system a harmless piece of a pathogen: a killed virus, a weakened one, or a single protein from its surface. The body makes antibodies against that piece, and keeps the recipe.
Because the recipe is kept, the real pathogen is met by a defence already in place.
There is a second effect. If enough people are immune, the pathogen cannot find a chain of hosts, so those who cannot be vaccinated are protected too. That effect fails below a threshold, which is why coverage rather than availability is what matters.
1. Explain the relationship between the number of people immune and the safety of those who are not.
2. Why does the text mention that no ethics committee would permit Jenner's test?
3. Summarise this text.
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
Why the Thames Froze
Between 1309 and 1814 the Thames froze hard enough to walk on at least twenty-four times. Since 1814 it has not once.
The usual explanation is that the climate has warmed. That is part of it, and not most of it.
Old London Bridge had nineteen arches on wide stone piers. The piers took up so much of the channel that the bridge acted as a weir, slowing the water upstream almost to a standstill. Still water freezes; moving water does not.
The river was also shallower and wider then, spreading over land that has since been embanked. Shallow water loses heat faster.
Old London Bridge was demolished in 1831. The embankments were built between 1862 and 1874. The river that flows through London now is narrower, deeper and faster than the one that froze — and it would not freeze in a colder winter than any of those.
1. Summarise this text.
2. Why does the last sentence mention a colder winter?
3. Explain the relationship between the bridge's piers and the freezing.
LessonPrint · RI.5.10 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Following a Weighed Argument
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. If enough are immune the pathogen cannot find a chain of hosts, so the unvaccinated are protected — but only above a threshold. 2. To be honest that the method's origin would be unacceptable today, without discarding the science. 3. A vaccine shows the immune system a harmless piece of a pathogen so it keeps the antibody recipe, and above a coverage threshold it also protects those who cannot be vaccinated.
2.1. The Thames froze two dozen times before 1814 because Old London Bridge dammed it and the river was shallow and wide; demolition and embankment made it too fast and deep to freeze. 2. To show the cause was the river's shape, not the temperature — even more cold would not refreeze it now. 3. The wide piers made the bridge a weir, which slowed the water upstream almost to a standstill, and still water freezes.
Questions about Following a Weighed Argument
What does the Following a Weighed Argument worksheet cover?
It practises holding several competing claims together while reading — 2 questions for Grade 5, all on Common Core RI.5.10: Read and understand harder Grade 4-5 information texts on your own. The instruction to pupils is “Read the text, then answer the questions”, and the answer key follows on the next sheet.
Which Common Core standard does Following a Weighed Argument practise?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.10 — RI.5.10, in the Reading: Informational Text domain for Grade 5. The published standard reads: “By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
Following a Weighed Argument is written for Grade 5, typically ages 10-11. It is one of the sheets on RI.5.10, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does Following a Weighed Argument come with an answer key?
Yes. All 2 answers are generated from the same problems as the questions, so the key cannot drift out of step with the sheet. It starts on a fresh sheet of paper, after the questions, so it is not handed out with the class by accident.
How many different versions of Following a Weighed Argument can I print?
25 — one per pupil, and all 25 ask different questions. Set 1 downloads the whole class as a single PDF. Every version is fixed to its own address, so a sheet printed today holds the same problems when you reopen it next week.
Is Following a Weighed Argument free to print and photocopy?
Yes. Following a Weighed Argument, its answer key and its 25 versions are free to print and photocopy for your own class, with no account, no email capture and no subscription at the download step. Please do not resell them or republish them as your own.
More practice for RI.5.10
Read and understand harder Grade 4-5 information texts on your own.