The Dust Bowl (Question
References)
An
ecological and economic disaster of unprecedented proportions struck the southern
Great Plains in the mid 1930s. The region had suffered several drought years in
the early 1930s. Such dry spells occurred regularly in roughly twenty-year cycles.
But this time the parched earth became swept up in violent dust storms the likes
of which had never been seen before. The dust storms were largely the consequence
of years of stripping the landscape of its natural vegetation. During World War
I, wheat fetched record-high prices on the world market, and for the next twenty
years Great Plains farmers had turned the region into a vast wheat factory.
The
wide flatlands of the Great Plains were especially suited to mechanized farming,
and gasoline powered tractors, disc plows, and harvester-thresher combines increased
productivity enormously. Back in 1830.it had taken some fifty-eight hours of labor
to bring an acre of wheat to the granary; in much of the Great Plains a hundred
year later it required less than three hours. As wheat prices fell in the 1920s,
farmers broke still more land to make up the difference with increased
production. Great Plains farmers had created an ecological time bomb that
exploded when drought returned in the early 1930s.(A) With native buffalo grass
destroyed for the sake of wheat growing, there was nothing left to prevent soil
erosion. (B) Dust storms blew away tens of millions of acres of rich topsoil, and
thousands of farm families left the region. Those who stayed suffered deep
economic and psychological losses from the calamity. (C) The hardest-hit
regions were western Kansas, eastern Colorado, western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle,
and eastern New Mexico. (D) It was the calamity in this southern part of the Great Plains that prompted a
Denver journalist to coin the phrase "Dust Bowl."
Black
blizzards of du t a mile and a half high rolled across the landscape, darkening
the sky and whipping the earth into great drifts of dust that settled over hundreds
of miles. Dust storms made it difficult for humans and livestock to breathe and
destroyed crops and trees over vast areas. Dust storms turned day into night, terrifying
those caught in them. "Dust pneumonia" and other respiratory infections
afflicted thousands, and many travelers found themselves stranded in automobiles
and trains unable to move. The worst storms occurred in the early spring of 1935.
Several
federal agencies intervened directly to relieve the distress. Many thousands of
Great Plains farm families were given direct emergency relief by the Resettlement
Administration. Other federal assistance included crop and seed loans,
moratoriums on loan payments, and temporary jobs with the Works Progress Administration.
In most Great Plains counties, from one-fifth to one third of the families applied
for relief; in the hardest-hit communities as many as 90 percent of the families
received direct government aid. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration paid wheat farmers millions of
dollars not to grow what they could not sell and encouraged the diversion of
acreage from soil-depleting crops like wheat to soil-enriching crops such as sorghum.
To
reduce the pressure from grazing cattle on the remaining grasslands, the
Drought Relief Service of the Department of Agriculture purchased more than 8
million head of cattle in 1934 and 1935. For a brief time, the federal
government was the largest cattle owner in the world. This agency also lent ranchers
money to feed their remaining cattle. The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 brought stock
grazing on 8 million acres of public domain lands under federal management.
The
federal government also pursued longer-range policies designed to alter land-use patterns, reverse
oil erosion, and nourish the return of
grasslands. The Department of Agriculture, under Secretary Henry A. Wallace, sought
to change farming practices. The spearhead for this effort was the Soil Conservation
Service (SCS), which conducted research into controlling wind and water erosion,
set up demonstration projects, and offered technical assistance, supplies, and equipment
to farmers engaged in conservation work on farms and ranches. The SCS pumped additional
federal funds into the Great Plains and created a new rural organization, the soil
conservation district, which administered conservation regulations locally.
By
1940 the acreage subject to blowing in the Dust Bowl area of the southern Plains
had been reduced from roughly 50 million acres to Jess than 4 million acres. In
the face of the Dust Bowl disaster, New Deal farm policies had restricted market
forces in agriculture. But the return of regular rainfall and the outbreak of World
War II led many farmers to abandon the techniques that the SCS had taught them to accept. Wheat farming
expanded and farms grew as farmers once again pursued commercial agriculture with
little concern for its long-term effects on the land.
1.
What
is the main idea in this passage?
a.
The
Dust Bowl was named by a journalist in Denver.
b.
Ranchers
and farmers competed for land in the Dust Bowl.
c.
Conservation
policies never succeeded in the Dust Bowl.
d.
Farming
practices in the Dust Bowl resulted in a disaster
2.
How
many acres were affected by the erosion at the height of the storms?
a.
50
million b. 10 million c. 8 million d. 4 million
3.
The
word calamity in the passage is closest in meaning to
a.
Situation
b. disaster c. storm d. region
4.
The
word alter in the passage is closest in meaning to
a.
Expand
b. predict c. notice d. modify
5.
The
word them in the passage refers to
a.
Farmers
b. techniques c. farms d. policies
6.
According
to paragraph 7, which of the following practices did farmers use after World
War II?
a.
New
Deal from policies b. The SCS
techniques
c. Cattle grazing on
farmland d. Commercial methods
7.
Which
of the sentences below best expresses the information in the highlighted statement
in the passage? The other choices change the meaning or leave out important
information.
a.
Planting
sorghum with wheat saved the government millions of dollars in subsidies.
b.
The
government subsidized crops that contributed to the regeneration of the soil.
c.
Farmers
sold their wheat crops to the government for a large subsidy.
d.
The
soil was depleted because the government had subsidized wheat crops.
8.
The
author mentions all of the following government relief programs EXCEPT
a.
technical
support for farmers in soil conservation techniques
b.
loans
to ranchers for the purchase of cattle feed
c.
temporary
employment in the Works Progress Administration
d.
the
purchase of homesteads that had been abandoned
9.
It
can be inferred from the passage that
a.
ranchers
caused the Dust Bowl by grazing too many buffalo on the grasslands
b.
the
Dust Bowl was brought to an end by World War 11
c.
the
Great Plains is a wheat-producing region in the United States
d.
all
the homesteaders had to abandon their farms during the Dust Bowl
all
the homesteaders had to abandon their farms during the Dust Bowl
10.
Four
squares indicate
where the following sentence can be added to the passage.
A contemporary newspaper account describes dust blowing in
through closed doors and windows, destroying possessions and
making provision inedible.
Where would the sentence best fit
into the passage?
(a)
(b) (c)) (d)
ANSWER
KEY
1.
D
2.
A
3.
B
4.
D
5
.A
6.
D
7.
B
8.
D
9.
C
10.
C
No comments:
Post a Comment
thank you for visiting my blog and for your nice comments