Central Ideas/Details + Inferences : Workshop 1 End-of-Workshop

A. how the children got to work
B. how the children spent their pay
C. what the children’s jobs were
D. what the children did for fun
E. how young the children were

The passage says in paragraph 5 that a group of people took pictures of child workers.

Based on paragraph 4, choose two answers that tell what the pictures could have shown.

A Law to Protect Working Children

What was it like for child workers? In factories, fumes made children sick. Some got hurt. Their hands or legs got caught in machines. Others worked in dark, damp coal mines. Many worked 10 to 14 hours a day. They got few breaks to rest or eat. Such long hours kept children out of school. They did not learn skills to get better jobs.

In the early 1900s, some people criticized the idea of letting children work. They formed a group to collect information. They gathered facts about the ages of working children. They looked at the jobs children did and how much they earned. They also took photos of children at work.

A. In the past, women made cloth at home until textile mills opened.
B. In the 1800s, most cloth was made by women in the Lowell textile mills C. In the 1800s, women at Lowell’s textile mills tried to improve their working conditions.
D. In the Lowell mills, working conditions improved when factory owners decided to help their workers.

What is the central idea of the passage?

A Struggle for Better Working Conditions

In the past, women made cloth at home. They used simple spinning wheels and looms. But in the 1800s, new inventions changed the way cloth was made. Textile mills sprang up. They had power looms. Mill owners hired many workers to run the machines.

The largest mills were in Lowell, Massachusetts. Most of Lowell’s mill workers were young women. They moved there to work. These “mill girls” lived in boarding houses. The houses were built by the factory owners. Up to 40 women lived in each house. Older workers helped newcomers get used to the work.

The adjustment was hard, even for girls who grew up on farms. A bell rang at 4:30 in the morning. The women went to the factory and worked for two hours. After 30 minutes for breakfast, they worked until noon. T hey got 30 minutes for lunch. Then they worked until 7:00 p.m., when they ate dinner. They had little time to relax before bed. They needed a good sleep to restart the next day.

A. Strikes at US textile mills forced workers to lose their jobs.
B. Workers in US textile mills had the courage to speak out against unfair practices.
C. Strikes forced many of the first US textile mills to close.
D. Workers in the first US textile mills were paid less than workers in other types of factories.

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Which statement is best supported by details in the time line?