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The 1960's

The Beatles

The Beatles
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.74

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    charisma, hater, killing, mop-topped, suggestive, invasion, believers, untimely, legacy, impressive, internal, stodgy, warfare, testing, revolution, youth
     content words:    John F., President Kennedy, Bill Haley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Richard Starkey

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The Beatles
By Jane Runyon 		  
1     A revolution was taking place in America during the 1960's. This was not a revolution with warfare and killing. This was a revolution in the way people lived. The 1950's were the Eisenhower years. Life in America was quiet and conservative. Some even called it stodgy. The election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 started a change in attitude. Kennedy was energetic. He welcomed change. He wanted to change the way government treated the people in America. He wanted the people to have more choice in the way they lived. He wanted poverty wiped out. He started a movement to make these changes. All was going well until his assassination in 1963.
 
2     The American people were stunned by the death of their young president. It made no sense to anyone that he would be killed. He had only wanted to help the American people. He hadn't hurt anyone. How could this happen? Some young Americans thought they would never smile again. Just a little over two months after the untimely death of President Kennedy, America was invaded by Britain. No, this was not an invasion with guns blasting. This was an invasion by a group of four young men who would change the look of music in America forever. It would bring smiles back to the faces of American youth. This was an invasion by a group called The Beatles.
 
3     Rock and roll had been introduced to American teenagers during the 1950's Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and the king himself; Elvis Presley brought a new kind of rhythm to the dance scene. Not everyone welcomed this new kind of music. Parents and clergymen branded rock and roll as the Devil's music. Many of them believed that no good could possibly come from the swiveling hips and suggestive lyrics being sung, played and danced to.

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