Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources Reading Comprehension Worksheets The 1950's

War on Disease, Part 1 - Attacking Polio The 1950's

---

War on Disease, Part 1 - Attacking Polio
Print War on Disease, Part 1 - Attacking Polio Reading Comprehension


Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 7 to 9
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.11

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		full-strength, poliomyelitis, primeval, halted, forge, pictographs, incidence, onset, unprepared, breakthrough, suffering, founded, tragedy, production, urgent, finding
	content words:		Ancient Egyptian, President Franklin D., Franklin Roosevelt, National Foundation, Infantile Paralysis, Grace Kelley, Elvis Presley, Singer Eddie Cantor, Dimes Foundation, Jonas Salk

---

War on Disease, Part 1 - Attacking Polio By Toni Lee Robinson

---

¹     Science made some important leaps into the future during the 1950s. One breakthrough was the vaccine against polio. Poliomyelitis is a virus that attacks the spinal cord. It is highly contagious. It can cause paralysis and ultimately death when its victims can no longer breathe. The disease is also called infantile paralysis since it strikes children more often than adults.
 
²     Polio is a primeval killer. Ancient Egyptian pictographs and writings from the Greek and Roman civilizations show that people suffered from polio from the earliest of times. These describe children crippled from polio's deadly effects. Through time, polio has terrorized the world in wave after wave of outbreaks. Each wave was worse than the last.
 
³     Polio's most high profile victim in the U.S. was President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He contracted the disease in 1921. Through great effort of will, Roosevelt survived, but his legs were withered and useless. He had a handicap for the rest of his life.
 
⁴     In the polio outbreak that began in 1916, 27,000 people in the U.S. were paralyzed, and 9,000 more died. Many who lived could no longer breathe without mechanical help. They had to spend at least part of each day in an iron lung. Scientists worked frantically to find a cure for polio. In one case, the panic to stop the disease led to tragedy. A vaccine thought to be safe was rushed into trials. Several cases of polio were actually induced in children by the injections. At least nine died. Testing of the vaccine was halted for more than ten years.
 
⁵     In the early 1950s, the dreaded disease struck again, even more cruelly than before. More than 58,000 people suffered from the virus. Many thousands died, and more were maimed. Money was poured into research to find a way to stop the frightening illness. Franklin Roosevelt founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, a group dedicated to funding the fight against polio.

Paragraphs 6 to 13:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Feedback on War on Disease, Part 1 - Attacking Polio

Leave your feedback on War on Disease, Part 1 - Attacking Polio   (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

The 1950's

The 1950's

---

More Lessons

High School Reading Comprehensions and High School Reading Lessons

---

United States

United States

American Government         Black History and Blacks in U.S. History         Children in History         Government Careers         Hispanic Heritage         How Can I Help?

Immigration         National Parks and Monuments         Native Americans         Presidents of the United States         Women's History

---

United States History

A Nation Divided (1840-1861)         A New Nation (1776-1830)         After the Civil War (1865-1870)         American Revolution         Cold War (1947-1991)         Colonial America (1492-1776)         Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)         Pearl Harbor         Spanish American War (1898)         The 1890's         The 1900's         The 1910's         The 1920's         The 1930's

The 1940's         The 1950's         The 1960's         The 1970's         The 1980's         The 1990's         The 2000's         The Civil War (1861-1865)         The Great Depression (1929-1945)         The United States Grows (1865-1900)         The War of 1812         Wild, Wild West         World War I (1914-1918)         World War II

---

50 States

Fifty States Theme Unit

---

Document Based Activities

Document Based Activities

Copyright © 2025 edHelper