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Canadian Theme Unit

The Great Depression

The Great Depression
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.44

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    buggies, camps, hitched, minimum, prime, quebec, british, especially, caption, timber, wage, boomed, mostly, crashed, business, ever
     content words:    Richard Bennett, Great Depression, United States, British Columbia, Mackenzie King, New Deal, Nothing Bennett, Canadian Radio Broadcasting Company

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The Great Depression
By Mary Lynn Bushong 		  
1      Caption: Richard Bennett
 
2     Have you ever wondered what would happen if people lost their jobs? Not just a few people, but many people. It happened in Canada and other countries. It was called the Great Depression.
 
3     All through the 1920's, business boomed. It looked like the good times were there to stay.
 
4     Farmers in the West were growing vast amounts of wheat. Much of it would be shipped to feed the people of other countries. Then, in 1928, the wheat market crashed. The price for wheat dropped.
 
5     Many people were worried. They had hundreds of bushels of wheat, but the price was not high enough to pay the costs of growing it. Money became scarce, and the people of Saskatchewan began to worry.
 
6     Then at the end of 1929, the stock markets all over the world collapsed. It was especially bad in Canada and the United States. Companies went out of business. Jobs were lost, and soon many people had very little money.
 
7     Other provinces were hurt, but not as bad. In the Maritimes, people could earn money by fishing or in other kinds of farming.
 
8     Quebec and Ontario had more industry. They also had timber, minerals, and farms.
 
9     British Columbia had minerals, timber, and fishing. The provinces also had farms. They had many different kinds of goods.

Paragraphs 10 to 21:
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