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Borders: reading informational text; The Berlin Wall 9

Problem

Read the passage.

Walled In

  1. Border walls are nothing new. They have been used throughout history to keep people out. What makes the Berlin Wall unusual is that it was built to keep people in. After World War II, Germany was divided into sections. The western sections were controlled by Western powers, including France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The eastern section was controlled by the Soviet Union.
  2. The quality of life in West Germany was better than in East Germany, and there was a border running through the middle of the city of Berlin that was relatively easy to cross. Many young professionals, including doctors, lawyers, and engineers, took advantage of this situation to flee to West Germany. By 1961, 16 years after the end of WWII, East Germany had lost approximately 20 percent of its population to West Germany.
  3. The leaders of the government, known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), knew that their country could not survive the continued emigration of its best and brightest, so they had to figure out a way to keep these young professionals in East Germany. In August of 1961, Walter Ulbricht ordered the construction of the Berlin Wall, and at midnight on August 12, 1961, the border was closed and construction began.
  4. The process was abrupt and the first barriers at the East German border in Berlin were crude. Armed guards and barbed wire fences that could be hastily erected in the middle of the night were all that stood between East Germans and life on the other side. However, the walls were quickly fortified. The message was clear: East Germans were not to leave, and those who tried to do so would be risking their lives. In fact,136 people were shot and killed for trying to escape. The wall was effective at stemming the tide of expatriation out of East Germany. From 1961 to 1989 when the wall came down, only about 5,000 East Germans were able to flee. That is a considerable reduction from the 3.5 million who had fled before the Berlin Wall was built.
  5. The United States never supported the wall and was quick to establish that they would still be sending diplomats into East Germany. Using military force at border checkpoints, the United States demonstrated this position as early as August 20, 1961. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy voiced his support of the East German people while speaking to a group of 450,000 people in West Berlin. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan advocated strongly for the removal of the wall saying, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
  6. In November of 1989, just seventeen months after President Reagan’s now famous speech, the border was opened and the people of the city immediately began to tear down the wall.
Read this sentence from paragraph 4.
“The wall was effective at stemming the tide of expatriation out of East Germany.”
What is the meaning of the phrase “stemming the tide”?
Choose 1 answer:
What other phrase from paragraph 4 best helps us understand the meaning of “stemming the tide”?
Choose 1 answer: