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COUNTRY LIFE

The Industrial Revolution

 

Activity 1:

Read the story below.  Click on the underlined words to learn what the words say and what they mean.

Click on the "Comprehension Check" link below.  Re-read the story and answer the questions.

    The story "A Revolution Comes to the Country" is about the Industrial Revolution.  It is about country life in the late 1700's.  America was still new.  Most Americans lived in farms of in very small towns called villages.   Most people were self-sufficient.  Every member of a family had to work and contribute.  If they did not, the family would not survive.  The people who lived in cities depended on the farmers for food and other goods that were handcrafted.  Not many things were manufactured in the cities.

    This Industrial Revolution started in England.  New inventions were starting to change the way people worked and lived.  Before this Industrial Revolution manufacturing was done at home.  People either used their hands for making goods or they used simple tools.  Spinning wheels were used to make wool or cotton into thread.  The thread was woven together on handlooms to make cloth.   When the spinning jenny, a powerful motorized tool, came along more cloth could be made in less time.

    The new machines ran by water power.  The machines were not put in farmers houses.  The machines were but in buildings by rivers or streams.  Many machines were put together in these buildings.  They called these new buildings factories.  For the first time many workers and machines workec together.

    These products made by machines were less expensive.  More people could buy things.  People moved from the country to live by these factories.  They moved to find jobs in these factories.  So, these machines really changed life in the United States.

 

Before you click the "Comprehension Check" below re-read the passage above.  Most people have to read something at least two times before they really understand what is meant.

 

 

During the Industrial Revolution many machines were invented that helped people to live better lives.  These inventions allowed people to buy things like clothes and books, and even cars, that would have been too expensive for them to buy before.

     Industrial Revolution Research

GATE Reading and the Industrial Revolution -- Challenge Pages!

Now you are the inventor.  Using the sheet HERE describe and draw an invention you would create to make something easier.  Think 1700's.  There was very little power, no computers or televisions or radios.  Try to make your invention as authentic as possible.