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Canadian Theme Unit


Rails, Roads, and Water


Rails, Roads, and Water
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 2 to 3
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   2.51

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    waterway, longer, trade, country, know, able, goods, build, sail, train, also, between, follow, steam, worry, river
     content words:    Lake Ontario, Niagara Falls, Welland Canal, Lake Huron, New York City, British Columbia


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Rails, Roads, and Water
By Mary Lynn Bushong
  

1     You know what roads are. They are clear areas for people to move from place to place. Some roads were only a wide path at first. Then they were made wider and smoother. That made it easier for carts and wagons to move from place to place.
 
2     Sometimes goods were too heavy to move very far on land. Sometimes goods were taken across the ocean. They had to be carried on ships.
 
3     Some rivers were too shallow for ships. Some rivers had rapids that made it hard for ships to pass.
 
4     Ships had to go around the rapids on the St. Lawrence. Then they could go into Lake Ontario. After that they had to stop. The Niagara Falls would not let them go further.
 
5     Big ships had to be built on the other side of the falls to sail on the lakes past Niagara. This was a problem for trade. How could ships get around the falls? It was done with canals.

Paragraphs 6 to 15:
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