Mud Blood and Poison Gas

Which is a central idea of the article?

• During World War I, soldiers spent much of their time in trenches

• World War I had a profound impact on much of the world.

• The United States entered World War I in 1917.

• American women could not vote until after World War I.

Which of these statements is an opinion?

• Which of these statements is an opinion?

• Soldiers sometimes stayed in trenches for weeks or months.

• Germany had to accept blame for the war.

• The U.S. should have declared war right after the sinking of the Lusitania

Which country was not one of the Allied Powers?

• France

• Germany

• United Kingdom

• Russia

What effect did the introduction of rapidly firing machine guns and artillery have on the war?

• Such weapons caused a historic loss of life.

• Armies developed poison gas in order to defend against the weapons.

• The Lusitania was sunk by them.

• Germany was forced to pay $33 billion because of the damage they caused.

What does the word brutal mean in the following sentence? “Soldiers described the brutal reality of life in the trenches: mud up to their knees,rats as large as cats, and the horrible smell of overflowing toilets.”

• dirty

• very harsh

• frightening

• uninteresting

What did the editors intend to show in the sidebar “If YOU Were a Kid in 1918” on p. 20?

• the severity of the Spanish flu epidemic

• the dangers Americans faced at home

• how different life was for kids in the U.S. a century ago

• that today’s movie tickets are overpriced

How did the sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-boat “bring the war home to Americans”?

• Many Americans felt like Germany had attacked the U.S. directly when they heard that innocent Americans had died on the Lusitania

• The sinking of the ship cost U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars.

• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson immediately declared war on Germany.

• The incident brought Adolf Hitler to power.

Which conclusion can you draw from the article?

• The United States failed to become a world power after World War I.

• Americans have long disagreed on what role the U.S. should play in foreign conflicts.

• The current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were brewing even before World War I.

• The invention of poison gas saved millions of Allied troops.

What does the map on p. 21 illustrate?

• why the Central Powers lost the war

• how U.S. troops were used in the war

• the reasons the war started

• how Europe was divided during the war