The Panama Canal plays a critical role in today’s global commerce, but it almost didn’t happen. A group of French engineers led by Charles De Lesseps spent nine years in Panama excavating earth to no avail. Later, Theodore Roosevelt took up the canal dream. Another 10 years of hard labor resulted in the engineering feat that is the Panama Canal.This story is told in the third person and the past tense. Important vocabulary in the story includes: “obreros” (workers), “esclusa” (canal lock), “t...