Middle School
Worksheets
Independence Day in Lebanon
Lebanese Independence Day
Reading Comprehension for November 22
Do you feel that you are a strong person? Do you feel that you have the power to change things around you? Would you feel stronger in a group of your friends? What if you were in a group of thousands - would you feel even stronger? There's a common phrase that describes this: "strength in numbers." And in one Middle Eastern country, young people not much older than you found enough "strength in numbers" to help change their country.
Lebanon is a small country in the Middle East. Israel is to its south, the Mediterranean Sea is to its west, and Syria is to its north and east. Its location between historically strong empires has kept Lebanon under foreign rule for almost all of its recorded history.
Lebanon's first inhabitants moved in around 10,000 BC. Over several thousand years, Lebanon turned into a country of cities and towns. The people who lived there became known as the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians built one of the region's greatest civilizations. They traded, they built cities, and they ruled the sea. Then came the Assyrians around the 9th century BC. For just about the rest of its history, Lebanon was at the center of one power struggle or another.
