LESSON: LETTING SWIFT RIVER GO

Lesson Summary

Sally Jane began her life in one of the small towns along the Swift River. Because the city of Boston needed more water, the small rural towns were removed, the river was damned, and the Quabbin Reservoir was formed.

Concept: Trade-offs

Definition: When making a choice, trade-offs means getting a little less of one thing in order to get a little more of another.

Comprehension Questions

Why did the people of the small towns along the Swift River have to move?
The towns were removed in order to create a reservoir because the people of Boston did not have enough water.

What were the trade-offs the people in the town faced?
The people earned money for a better life somewhere else, but they gave up their homes, their friends, and their town.

What natural resource was scarce in the city but not in Sally Jane's town?
Water

What other natural resources were collected as the land was prepared to build the reservoir?
All the trees were cut down and hauled away.

What natural resource could not be used after the reservoir was completed?
The fertile soil of the valley to grow plants.

Identify the trade-off of natural resources.
Getting more fresh water and losing fertile land.

Other Concepts: Natural Resources, Scarcity, Capital Resources

  Trade-Offs 

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