Tenements: Shutting Out the Sky

In the section "First Impressions", what is the main idea?

• Rose and Leonard were excited to start their new life in America.

• Rose and Leonard were sad to leave their home country.

• Rose and Leonard were disappointed by what they found in America.

• America was everything they had hoped it would be.

What two pieces of text evidence support the statement "Rose and Leonard were disappointed by what they found in America."

• "His father seemed so much taller and stronger than he remembered."

• "All the warm sunlight and fresh air of his mountain home in Italy had been replaced by four walls and people everywhere."

• "Rose Cohen was bewildered at her first sight of New York."

• "I felt a thrill: Am I really in America at last? But the next moment, I felt a little disappointed, a little homesick."

• "As he looked around, Leonard couldn't help feel a little overwhelmed at first."

Why did the Lower East Side become so crowded? Choose two.

• The Lower East Side was the best place to live in New York.

• The Lower East Side was the only place in New York that had developed housing and neighborhoods.

• As immigrants came to America, they wanted to be with family and friends from back home. Immigrants tended to stick together.

• The immigrants did not have transportation to go anywhere else.

• The immigrants wanted to live close to where they could find jobs.

What was tenement housing?

• Apartment complexes with dedicated and shared common areas.

• A home occupied by three or more families doing their own cooking.

• A one family home with a yard.

• The people who lived in New York during this time of immigration.

What are two main ideas of the section "Where Will They Live"?

• Living in New York during this time was dangerous for women and children.

• The need for quick and inexpensive housing, for so many, caused builders and landlords to construct poorly built apartments, and not maintain them.

• Immigrants living in tenement housing suffered poor living conditions.

• The living conditions in the tenements were the immigrants fault.

What does reform mean?

• to make laws

• to fix or make better

• to build new

• to travel

Why would landlords and builders not improve the living conditions for immigrant housing?

• The immigrants were disrespectful to the American culture.

• The builders and landlords did not have the money to make improvements.

• The landlords and builders knew that with so many people needing housing they did not have to improve.

• It was against the law to improve buildings that were occupied.