Skip to content
LessonPrint

Wreck, Fever and Failed Harvest is a free printable Grade 3 to Grade 5 social studies worksheet on effects of catastrophic events on settlement, aligned to Common Core standard D2.Geo.9.3-5. It prints 8 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 24 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next setLesson plan

One paper per pupil

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Wreck, Fever and Failed Harvest

D2.Geo.9.3-5

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

1.Fever sweeps the mill district. What follows?
  • A.The mill expands
  • B.Wages rise
  • C.Deaths rise, and pressure grows for piped water
2.Who stays after a disaster, and why?
  • A.Nobody at all
  • B.Only the wealthy
  • C.Those with land, family or age that ties them to the place
3.Three vessels are lost in one year. What follows for the harbour district?
  • A.More ships come
  • B.Families lose their earners, and the board is pressed to build a light
  • C.Nothing changes
4.What does the emigration ledger record about such years?
  • A.Passages booked by people whose trade had failed
  • B.Harvest yields
  • C.Ship repairs
5.Why is a wage cut not quite a disaster?
  • A.It is over quickly
  • B.It affects nobody
  • C.It reduces a living rather than destroying the means of one
6.A harvest fails across the uplands for three years. What follows?
  • A.Rents fall to nothing
  • B.Everybody stays
  • C.Families give up their holdings and move to the mills or abroad
7.A town's population jumps after a rural disaster. What does that suggest?
  • A.The town grew in area
  • B.People moved from the countryside to the town for work
  • C.More babies were born
8.The mill burns down. What happens to the district?
  • A.The mill rebuilds itself
  • B.Hands must find work elsewhere or leave the district
  • C.Wages rise

LessonPrint · D2.Geo.9.3-5 · Set 24 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Wreck, Fever and Failed Harvest

Set 24. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.Deaths rise, and pressure grows for piped water
  2. 2.Those with land, family or age that ties them to the place
  3. 3.Families lose their earners, and the board is pressed to build a light
  4. 4.Passages booked by people whose trade had failed
  5. 5.It reduces a living rather than destroying the means of one
  6. 6.Families give up their holdings and move to the mills or abroad
  7. 7.People moved from the countryside to the town for work
  8. 8.Hands must find work elsewhere or leave the district

More practice for D2.Geo.9.3-5

Work out how a disaster changes where people live and where they move.

Teaching this next? Wreck, Fever and Failed Harvest is the 50-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 3 to Grade 5 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to D2.Geo.9.3-5 of the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.