The Pony Express: Reading Comprehension Worksheet

Read the passage

The same text as the printed sheet, with the same paragraph numbers the questions refer to — for reading aloud from a screen or a board.

1. In 1860, news traveled across the United States very slowly. A letter sent from the East to California could spend weeks bouncing along in a stagecoach. A group of businessmen believed they could do better, and in April of that year they launched the Pony Express. They promised to carry letters across half the country in just ten days.
2. Their plan was a relay. The trail ran nearly 2,000 miles, from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. Along the way stood small stations, roughly ten to fifteen miles apart. A rider galloped from one station to the next, leaped onto a fresh horse that was already saddled, and raced on without stopping to rest. After a run of about seventy-five to one hundred miles, he handed the mail to the next rider.
3. The mail rode in a mochila, a leather cover that fit over the saddle. It had four pockets that held the letters. Because a rider could swing the mochila from one saddle to another in seconds, the mail barely paused at all. To keep the horses fast, the company hired small, light riders, and the letters and newspapers they carried were printed and written on thin paper.
4. The system worked. Mail that had taken weeks now crossed the trail in about ten days, while riders pushed through blizzards, deserts, and long nights in the saddle. Winter storms sometimes slowed the riders down, but the mail kept moving.
5. Yet the Pony Express lasted only about a year and a half. Every horse, rider, and station cost money, and the company never earned enough to cover its costs. The final blow came in October 1861, when workers finished a telegraph line that stretched from coast to coast. A telegraph message moved along the wire in minutes. Within days, the Pony Express closed for good. Even so, the riders are still remembered for their speed and their courage.

The questions

The answers, and the paragraph each one comes from, are on the last page of the PDF — not here, so a student reading on screen cannot see them.

1. In paragraph 3, what is a mochila?
   1. a fresh horse waiting at a station
   2. a leather cover with pockets that held the mail
   3. a small station along the trail
   4. a message sent by telegraph
2. Why did the company hire small, light riders?
   1. to keep the horses fast
   2. so the riders could sleep at the stations
   3. because the trail was too narrow for big riders
   4. so each rider could carry more letters
3. Why did a rider switch to a fresh horse at each station instead of riding one horse the whole way?
   1. A rested horse could keep running at top speed.
   2. Each station keeper wanted a turn to ride.
   3. Horses were not allowed to leave their home station.
   4. The riders liked trying many different horses.
4. Explain how the telegraph made the Pony Express unnecessary. Use two details from the passage. (written answer)
5. Which sentence best states the main idea of the passage?
   1. Stagecoaches were the fastest way to send mail in 1860.
   2. The Pony Express was a fast mail relay that did not last once the telegraph arrived.
   3. St. Joseph, Missouri, was the busiest town in the West.
   4. Riding a horse through a blizzard is dangerous.

How the reading level was set

This passage was written to the Grades 5–6 band: Longer sentences with more than one clause, more subject vocabulary (mochila, telegraph, radiation), some of it explained only by its context, and an explanation that runs across the whole passage — cause and effect, or a claim and its limits — so the main idea has to be put together rather than found in one sentence. The band is a judgement, not a readability score — no Lexile measure or grade-level formula has been applied. These are the counts it rests on, taken from the text itself:

Words:

317

Sentences:

22

Average sentence:

14.4 words

Longest sentence:

25 words

Words of seven letters or more:

18%

Sources for the facts in this passage

The passage is original writing, not an excerpt or an adaptation. Its facts were checked against these pages:

• United States Postal Service, Historian — The Pony Express — April 1860 to October 1861; St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, on a route of nearly 2,000 miles; relay stations 10 to 15 miles apart and riders covering 75 to 100 miles; the mochila with four pockets; ten days for the first mail; a company deeply in debt that did not cover its costs; the end after the transcontinental telegraph was completed.
• National Park Service — Pony Express Trail Junior Ranger — Riders had to weigh less than 120 pounds, mail was carried on lightweight paper, and the service ended with the completion of the transcontinental telegraph in October 1861.

More reading comprehension passages

• Beavers Build a HomeGrades 1–2 · Life science — animal homes
• How Bread RisesGrades 1–2 · Physical science — everyday chemistry
• The Honeybee's Waggle DanceGrades 3–4 · Life science — animal communication
• Why the Moon Seems to Change ShapeGrades 3–4 · Earth and space science — the Moon
• Tardigrades: Tiny SurvivorsGrades 5–6 · Life science — extreme survival

Or see every passage, grouped by reading level, on the reading comprehension worksheets page.