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Cold War
(1947-1991)
 The Arms Race

The Arms Race
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.73

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    stockpile, atomic, nuclear, radiation, bomb, testing, exile, insure, operation, attack, soil, peace, powerful, dangerous, site, return
     content words:    United States, World War II, Soviet Union, Cold War, Bikini Atoll, Pacific Ocean, Marshall Islands, Operation Crossroads

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The Arms Race
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     The United States shocked the world when it dropped an atomic bomb on Japan to end World War II. Then, in 1949, when Russia set off an atomic bomb in a test in Kazakhstan, we found out that the United States was not the only country with nuclear weapons.
 
2     This began the contest between the United States and the Soviet Union known as the arms race. The arms race was a major part of the Cold War. Both countries produced more and more powerful nuclear weapons to try to stay ahead of the other. They knew that this was a dangerous contest. After all, when the US dropped the atomic bombs on Japan, thousands and thousands of people were killed instantly, and the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed. What they did not understand yet was that nuclear weapons had even more hidden dangers.
 
3     The United States would learn about these hidden dangers when it conducted nuclear bomb tests on Bikini Atoll.
 
4     Bikini Atoll is a group of 23 small coral islands grouped around a 25-mile wide lagoon in the Pacific Ocean. They are part of the Marshall Islands.

Paragraphs 5 to 11:
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