Teacher Created Resources, Inc.6421 Industry Way

Westminster, CA 92683www.teachercreated.com

ISBN: 978-1-4206-8376-9 © 2007 Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

Reprinted, 2010Made in U.S.A.

PublisherMary D. Smith, M.S. Ed.

EditorSara Connolly

IllustratorKevin McCarthy

Cover ArtistBrenda DiAntonis

Managing EditorIna Massler Levin, M.A.

Creative DirectorKaren J. Goldfluss, M.S. Ed.

Art Production ManagerKevin Barnes

Art CoordinatorRenée Christine Yates

ImagingNathan RiveraRosa C. See

The classroom teacher may reproduce copies of materials in this book for classroom use only. Reproduction of any part for an entire school or school system is strictly prohibited. No part of this publication may be transmitted, stored, or recorded in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Author

Debra J. Housel, M.S. Ed.

#8376 Document-Based Questions 2 ©Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

Table of ContentsIntroduction

About this Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Practice Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Standardized Test Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Standards and Benchmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Incredible Disasters

Without Warning: The Destruction of Pompeii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Black Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Look Out Below! Here Comes the Snow . . . . . 16

Horror in Halifax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

The Hindenberg Tragedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Space Shuttle Disasters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Waves that Shook the Planet: The 2004 Tsunami . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Important Firsts

Prison Reform at Eastern State Penitentiary . . . 31

Civil War Battleship Crews: The First Integrated U.S. Armed Forces . . . . 34

The Birth of Radio: The “Wireless” . . . . . . . . . 37

Henry Ford’s Assembly Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Charles Lindbergh and the First Transatlantic Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

A Giant Leap for Mankind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Did You Know?

Executed for Espionage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Mascots in the Military . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Destroying Ecosystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

The U.S. Coast Guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

The Man Who Slept Through His Own Presidency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Scream Machines: The History of Roller Coasters . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

People Who Made a Difference

Dorothea Dix, Champion for the Mentally Ill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Thomas Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park . . . . 70

Mohandas Gandhi: A Man of Peaceful Action . 73

Amazing Courage: Irena Sendler’s Silence . . . 76

Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court Justice . . . . 79

Mother Teresa: Greatest Humanitarian of the Twentieth Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Interesting Places

At a Crossroads and in the Crosshairs: Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Antarctica: A Hidden Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

The Land Down Under: Australia . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Bulgaria: A Balkan Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

The Cradle of Civilization: Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Jamaica, Jewel in the Caribbean Sea . . . . . . . . 100

Swaziland, Land of a Single Culture . . . . . . . . 103

Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

#8376 Document-Based Questions 10 ©Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

Incredible Disasters

Without Warning: The Destruction of Pompeii

Pompeii was a bustling city in Ancient Rome. It was located near what is now Naples, Italy. The city lay at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, the only active volcano on Europe’s mainland. But the people did not realize that it was a volcano.

Before a volcano erupts, it usually rumbles and smokes, sometimes for months. But when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E., it did so without warning. The only clue was the strange behavior of the animals. Just minutes before it happened, dogs fled the city. Flocks of sheep stampeded. Horses threw their riders and bolted. First the mountain sent out a spray of red-hot rocks and pebbles. They rained down on the city. Then it put out clouds of toxic gases that killed all living things almost instantly. Next it spewed ash for a week. Tons of it fell on the city, covering it like a thick blanket. This formed an airtight cover about 12-feet deep that was not disturbed for over 1,500 years. Since oxygen could not reach the area, things did not decay.

Over time erosion broke down the top layer of ash. It turned into rich soil. Slowly the city became hidden beneath layers of dirt. People planted vineyards and forgot a city had ever been there. More eruptions buried the city even deeper. Then, in 1595, a worker digging a tunnel uncovered a small part of the buried city. It took historians more than a century to figure out it was Pompeii. No one was very interested in it until a man from Spain decided that the city held gold. In 1748 he began to uncover the ruins. He was shocked to find that the paint of the wall murals was bright and some food well preserved. Olives soaking in oil were still edible, and jugs held wine that had not soured!

But most amazing were the people. There was a Roman soldier still standing tall at his post. The priests’ bodies indicate that they were doing their duties as well. Inside a home, a rich man stood with a sword in one hand and a foot atop a chest filled with gold and silver coins. It appears that he wanted to defend his wealth from the five men lying nearby. Actually, archaeologists found just the shells of these bodies. They poured plaster into these molds. This resulted in such detailed copies of the people that one can see the expressions on their faces.

Of the 20,000 people living in Pompeii, about 4,000 escaped. At the first sign of the eruption, the survivors did not wait to grab their belongings. They ran to the Mediterranean Sea and got into boats. Those who waited even a little while found that the volcano had caused wild tides that swept away both the docks and the boats. This left them stranded. Many bodies lay on the path to the sea. A total of 2,000 well-preserved corpses were found.

Now the ruins give us a glimpse of the once-beautiful, thriving city. There is still more to uncover, so the city remains under excavation. Millions of tourists come each year to see the city that slept for more than 1,500 years.

©Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 11 #8376 Document-Based Questions

Incredible Disasters

Without Warning: The Destruction of Pompei

Major Volcanic Eruptions (through 2006)

Year Volcano Where Deaths

79 Mount Vesuvius Italy 15,000

1631 Mount Vesuvius Italy 3,500

1669 Mount Etna Sicily, Italy 20,000

1783 Mount Skaptar Laki, Iceland 9,000

1792 Mount Mayuyama Unzen, Japan 15,000

1815 Mount Tambora Java, Indonesia 70,000+

1822 Galunggung Java, Indonesia 4,000

1883 Krakatoa Java & Sumatra, Indonesia 36,000

1902 Mount Pelée Martinique, West Indies 30,000+

1919 Mount Kelud Indonesia 5,000

1951 Mount Lamington New Guinea 3,000

1985 Nevado del Ruiz Colombia 23,000

1991 Mount Pinatubo Philippines 1,200

#8376 Document-Based Questions 12 ©Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

Incredible Disasters

Without Warning: The Destruction of Pompeii

1. In 79 C.E. the people of Pompeii a. knew that they were living at the c. were shocked when Mount Vesuvius erupted.

base of an active volcano. b. had plenty of time to escape d. heard rumbling and saw smoke come from the

after Mount Vesuvius erupted. mountain for weeks before it erupted. 2. Most people died from the a. hot rocks and pebbles falling from the sky. c. boiling lava. b. poisonous fumes. d. thick blanket of ash. 3. What percent of Pompeii’s population died in this disaster? a. 25 percent c. 50 percent b. 33 percent d. 80 percent

4. The 79 C.E. eruption was the deadliest in Mount Vesuvius’ history. True or False? Explain. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

5. In terms of deadly volcanoes, what nation is the worst in which to live? Use facts from the chart in your answer. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

6. Are the people living at the base of Mount Vesuvius today in as much danger as the people of Pompeii? Defend your stance. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

©Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 13 #8376 Document-Based Questions

Incredible Disasters

The Black DeathThe Black Death, or bubonic plague, killed one-third of Europe’s entire population. It began in 1348 and lasted more than 300 years. It wiped out 50,000 people in Paris alone! The disease probably began in China. Ships carried infected rats from there to the Mediterranean Sea. Once the rats reached shore, they scurried across Europe. By 1698, the disease had claimed 25 million victims.

Back then people knew nothing about germs. They had no idea how any disease spread. Although they made soap, they did not understand the importance of cleanliness and lived in filthy conditions. Now we know that fleas carried the bubonic plague bacteria. These fleas bit the rats that lived in people’s homes. It was common for people to be bitten by both rats and fleas, but nobody realized that such a bite was a death sentence. To make matters worse, just before the bubonic plague broke out, Europeans had killed cats because they thought that cats were associated with the devil. Those cats had kept the rat population in check. Fewer cats meant more rats, and each one harbored the plague-infested fleas in its fur.

People called the bubonic plague the Black Death because the victim’s skin turned black. It started out with red rings on the skin followed by a high fever and coughing up blood. A person also might develop painful swellings. Nearly three-fourths of those who caught it died. Most died within three days; some died in a day. When patients coughed, the germs spread through the air. Once a person fell ill within a house, it was sealed for 40 days. A cross was painted on the door to warn others, and no one could go in or out.

So many people were dying so fast that survivors ran out of caskets. People stacked corpses like logs in shallow mass graves. There were no funerals because people would not gather for a ceremony; they feared each other, never knowing who would fall ill next. So each day carts moved through the streets. The driver would cry, “Bring out your dead!” Nearly every home’s door opened. People carried their dead loved ones to the wagon and threw them in. Entire families perished. Some people were so terrified that they abandoned a family member at the first sign of illness. Those who fled to the countryside brought the disease with them. Nowhere was safe.

Many believed that no one would survive and thought that the world would end. But those who survived seemed to develop resistance to the disease. Since they were the only people left to reproduce, they passed on this immunity to their offspring. Gradually the bubonic plague ran out of susceptible victims. The bubonic plague bacteria still exists, but now antibiotics can kill it.