Made in America

Last week on ABC TV’s World News, I accidentally came across a series called “Made in America: The Quest for American Jobs.”  ABC ran this series all week last week.  In the segment I saw, a family from Texas agreed to have everything that was not made in America removed from their home.  In return, World News was going to help them replace all their items with American made replacements.  After World News removed all the non-American made items, the family was left with almost nothing.  Even the American Girl doll was Made In China.  It is amazing how many things we buy that are not made here in America.

This task was a challenge.  Certain items were easily replaced with items that were of similar price.  The easier items to replace for similar cost were the furniture and textiles.  Appliances were another story entirely.  Through their study, they discovered that the only appliance companies that make their appliances 100% in the United States were the high-end ones.  Those high-end companies included Viking, Sub Zero, and Wolf   While these companies make top quality appliances, they are not realistic for the average American family.  World News compromised on that one and replaced their appliances with ones that were partially made in the US.

Two items that were extremely difficult to replace with American made ones were the television and the coffee maker.  In fact, they didn’t replace the family’s television.  Instead, they placed a picture where the television once was.

In the past few years, I too have been trying to purchase more items made in America.  Buying American made can help to keep jobs here.  Keeping jobs here helps employ more people, and that helps the economy.  

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/made-america-manufacturing-workers-world-news-labor-goods-economy-business-13061480?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=13061594&page=1 

Vocabulary

segment (noun) - a piece of something


quest (noun) - a journey in search of something


replace (verb) - to put something new in place of something old


remove (verb) - to take away


compromised (verb) - came to an agreement


appliance (noun) - a piece of household equipment that runs on gas or electricity


purchase (verb) - to buy something


Cloze Activity

I showed a _______________ of the video from the show.

I went on a ________________ to find the perfect pair of shoes.


After arguing over what to eat for dinner, we _________________ and had pasta.


The kitchen __________________ I would most like to ________________ is the dishwasher.  It is really old!


You can _________________ tickets at the ticket window.  Each ticket costs $10.00.


The dentist ________________ a rotten tooth from the patient's mouth.

Grammar Point 

The words remove and replace are two words I used in this blog.  Both of these words begin with the letters re.  Re is a prefix that means again or going back to the original.   We use prefixes to change the meaning of the base word.  In the case of remove, move is the base word.  In the case of replace, the base word is place.  Can you think of any other words that begin with the prefix re?