What is the main idea of the passage?

The Panama Canal combined major engineering and health work with global labor, unequal power, environmental change, and a long struggle over control. (The passage deliberately integrates technical achievement with labor conditions, politics, environment, and sovereignty.)

Why did builders use locks and a lake?

They adapted the route to inland elevation instead of cutting one sea-level channel through all terrain. (The lock chambers raise vessels to Gatun Lake and lower them, solving the change in height.)

What does “sovereignty” mean?

a country’s authority to govern its territory (The long dispute concerns foreign control of land across Panama and the later transfer of authority.)

When did Panama receive full control?

at the end of 1999 (The fourth paragraph gives the end of 1999 as the point of full control.)

The Canal Across the Isthmus: Level 3 Reading Comprehension Questions

A ship traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific once had to round South America to avoid crossing land at Panama. In the 1880s, a French-led canal project attempted a sea-level passage. Disease, terrain, engineering problems, and financial failure ended that effort.

The United States took over construction after Panama separated from Colombia in 1903 and granted the United States control in a canal zone. The politics involved pressure and unequal power, not only engineering. Workers came from many places, especially the Caribbean, and faced dangerous labor, disease, segregation, and unequal pay.

Builders chose a lock canal. A dam formed Gatun Lake, and lock chambers raised ships to the lake and lowered them on the other side. Excavators cut through hills while drainage and mosquito control reduced yellow fever and malaria.

The canal opened in 1914. It shortened sea routes and changed trade and naval planning. It also divided communities and placed a strip across Panama under foreign control. Panama gradually gained greater authority, receiving full control at the end of 1999. The canal's history cannot be reduced to one engineering triumph. It joins technical adaptation, international commerce, disease control, thousands of workers, environmental change, and a long dispute over sovereignty.

Comprehension questions