Cite Evidence From the Text

Grade 4 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Read the text. Circle the detail that supports each claim.

1. Read this first

   Mumbai's Lunchbox Carriers

   Every weekday in Mumbai, India, about 5,000 workers called dabbawalas deliver lunch. Together, they carry around 200,000 metal lunchboxes from homes to offices across the busy city.

   Each morning, a family cooks a hot lunch and packs it in a round tin box. A dabbawala picks it up by bicycle before 9:30. He brings the boxes to a train station. There, workers sort hundreds of boxes into groups by where they are going. The boxes ride the trains into the city. Then other dabbawalas carry them on carts or on their heads to each office. One worker may carry dozens of boxes on a long wooden crate. Each box must reach its office before lunchtime. After lunch, the empty boxes travel all the way back home.

   Most dabbawalas do not use phones or computers to track the boxes. Instead, each lid is painted with a short code of colors, numbers and letters. The code tells which station, which building and which floor the box needs.

   The system is more than a hundred years old. Visitors from big companies have come to study it. Some reports say the dabbawalas almost never lose a box. They keep working even in heavy monsoon rain, when streets fill with water.

   For many families, the lunchbox is more than a meal. It is a small taste of home in the middle of a long workday.

2. 1.

   A reader claims that the dabbawala system is very large. Which detail best supports this?

   • The empty boxes travel all the way back home after lunch.
   • Each lid is painted with a short code of letters.
   • About 5,000 workers carry around 200,000 lunchboxes.
3. 2.

   Which detail supports the claim that the dabbawalas are dependable in bad weather?

   • Some boxes ride trains into the city.
   • They ride bicycles to pick up the boxes.
   • They keep working in heavy monsoon rain.
4. 3.

   A student writes, "Many people work together to deliver one box." Which detail best supports this?

   • Different workers pick up, sort and carry each box.
   • Each family cooks a hot lunch at home every morning.
   • The system is more than a hundred years old.
5. 4.

   Which detail supports the idea that business people admire the system?

   • Families pack the hot lunch in a round tin box.
   • Visitors from big companies come to study it.
   • Workers sort hundreds of boxes at the train station.