Unit 4 Reading Comp Exam - 5th

Unit 4 Reading Comp Exam - 5th

Farm Labor in the USA

Labor Day

Labor Day is a holiday in the United States. It celebrates what workers have done to help the country. People often think about union factory workers when they think of Labor Day. Workers organize unions so they can come together as a large group. This way, they have more power to demand better pay, laws and working conditions. No one can do these things alone!

Multiple Choice

Why is "Labor Day" always written with capital letters?

• Because it is a holiday.

• Because it is the name of a person.

• Because it is the title of a book.

• Because it is a month.

Multiple Choice

Look at the picture and remember your vocabulary from this unit. What are the people doing?

• prefecting

• protecting

• protesting

• pinteresting

Multiple Select

Why do workers organize unions? Choose THREE (3) answers from the text.

• So they can come together as a group.

• So they have more power to demand better pay, laws and working conditions.

• No one can do these things alone!

• Because they want some friends to party with.

Indentured Servants

But some of America's most important moments for workers have been on farms, not in factories. When America was first settled, most farm labor was done by indentured servants from Great Britain. They were mostly white men and women, even children. They would do four to seven years of hard labor. After that they would be allowed to stay in the new American colonies and were often given land. Some of these workers were brought in through trickery or by force and were kept and sold as property. They had few rights.

Multiple Choice

What were indentured servants?

• People who got paid very well to do easy work.

• People who were allowed to stay in the American colonies if they agreed to do hard labor for several years.

• People who celebrated Labor Day.

• Factory workers.

Multiple Choice

Did children ever have to work as indentured servants?

• Yes

• No

Multiple Choice

What does the phrase "by force" mean in this sentence: "Some of these workers were brought in through trickery or by force and were kept and sold as property."?

• to push

• a great power in nature

• against their wishes

• team

By the 1600s, there weren't enough indentured servants to do all the work that was needed. So owners of farm plantations turned to an even crueler method of getting workers: they brought in captured Africans to be used as slaves. 

Multiple Choice

What do we call small sections of text close to a picture that help us understand the picture better?

• headings

• bold print

• glossaries

• captions

Multiple Select

Choose TWO (2) synonyms for the word "cruel."

• brutal

• nice

• evil

• sweet

Multiple Select

Choose TWO (2) antonyms for the word "captured."

• caught

• released

• freed

• imprisoned

No Promise of Freedom

Unlike indentured servants, slaves had almost no promise of freedom. Over the next two centuries, African slaves became the main farmworkers in the colonies. 

Slavery expanded, spreading quickly mostly in the South. But abolitionists who wanted to free the slaves also spread throughout the country. A major conflict developed between the states with slaves and those that opposed slavery. In 1808, the slave trade was banned, but not slavery itself. Slavery was not abolished until after the Civil War.

Multiple Choice

Use context clues to define the word "expanded" as it is used in this paragraph.

• shrunk

• spread

• slowed

• promised

Multiple Choice

Use context clues to define the word "abolitionists" as it is used in this paragraph.

• people who wanted to own slaves

• people who ran the slave trade

• people who wanted to free the slaves

• farmworkers

Multiple Select

Choose TWO (2) sets of synonyms in this section of text.

• freedom and centuries

• conflict and developed

• banned and abolished

• expanded and spread

Workers from Mexico

California became a major agricultural center after the Civil War with many farms that needed workers. By the 1930s, the immigrant workers came from Mexico. Latin American immigrants continue to make up most of the workers on U.S. farms to this day.

Multiple Choice

Use context clues to define the word "agricultural" as it is used in this paragraph.

• farming

• city

• civil

• immigrant

Multiple Choice

Choose one word in this section that is a common noun.

• California

• Civil War

• workers

• Mexico

Multiple Choice

What do we call a word that needs to start with a capital letter because it is the name or title of a person, place, or thing, like New York City or Mr. Forest?

• pronoun

• synonym

• antonym

• proper noun

A Hero of the Farm Labor Movement

The Mexican-American community organizer and activist César Chávez became a hero of the farm labor movement. He fought for the rights of migrant workers from the 1960s through the 1980s. Migrant workers travel from place to place for temporary work, such as farming in summer. 

Multiple Choice

Use context clues to define the word "temporary" as it is used in this paragraph.

• going on forever

• difficult; challenging

• hero

• lasting only for a limited time; seasonal

Si se puede! It can be done!

Along with Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association, later called the United Farm Workers. The group led a five-year strike of grape pickers and a national grape boycott — getting people to refuse to buy grapes. That boycott, along with many other forms of protest by Cesar Chavez and his supporters, eventually helped farmworkers get higher wages.

Multiple Choice

What do you do when you boycott?

• March with thousands of people to protest something you oppose.

• Refuse to buy or use goods and services from a company you disagree with.

• Refuse to work until your demands are met.

A Brighter Future

Although conditions for farmworkers have drastically improved throughout the history of the United States, there is still work to be done. We must learn from the mistakes of the past and treat our farmworkers better in the future!

Multiple Choice

Why did the author choose the heading of this section?

• To show that there will be more sunlight in the future.

• To explain that history was brighter than today.

• To explain that crops need brightness to grow.

• To tell us that if we learn from our mistakes, the future will be better for farmworkers.