Text Leveling System

Story of Ferdinand

RDQ:	421	Max Word/Sent	31	Total Words	694		Diff Words	223
Lex	620	Ave Word/.Sent	14	Hi Freq occurs	456	65.7%	Hi freq	95	42.6%
AR	2.5	Long Sentences	18.8	Low Freq occurs	23	3.3%	Low freq	14	6.3%

Once upon a time in Spain there was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand. 
All the other bulls he lived with would run and jump and butt their heads together but not Ferdinand. He liked to sit just quietly and smell the flowers. He had a favorite spot out in the pasture under the cork tree. It was his favorite tree and he would sit in its shade all day and smell the flowers. Sometimes his mother who was a cow would worry about him. She was afraid he would be lonesome all by himself. "Why don't you run and play with the other little bulls and skip and but your head?" she would say. But Ferdinand would shake his head. "I like it better here where I can sit just quietly and smell the flowers. " His mother saw that he was not lonesome and because she was an understanding mother even though she was a cow she let him just sit there and be happy. As the years went by Ferdinand grew and grew until he was very big and strong. All the other bulls who has grown up with him in the same pasture would fight each other all day. They would butt each other and stick each other with their horns. What they wanted most of all was to be picked to fight at the bull fights in Madrid. But not Ferdinand - he still liked to sit just quietly under the cork tree and smell the flowers. One day five men came in very funny hats to pick the biggest fastest roughest bull to fight in the bull fights in Madrid. All the other bulls ran around snorting and butting leaping and jumping so the men would think that they were very very strong and fierce and pick them. Ferdinand knew that they wouldn't pick him and he didn't care. So he went out to his favorite cork tree to sit down. He didn't look where he was sitting and instead of sitting on the nice cool grass in the shade he sat on a bumble bee. Well if you were a bumble bee and a bull sat on you what would you do? You would sting him. And that is just what this bee did to Ferdinand. Wow! Did it hurt! Ferdinand jumped up with a snort. He ran around puffing and snorting butting and pawing the ground as if he were crazy. The five men saw him and they all shouted with joy. Here was the largest and fiercest bull of all. Just the one for the bull fights in Madrid! So they took him away for the bull fight day in a cart. What a day it was! Flags were flying bands were playing...and all the lovely ladies had flowers in their hair. They had a parade into the bull ring. First came the Banderilleros with long sharp pins with ribbons on them to stick in the bull and make him mad. Next came the Picadores who rode skinny horses and they had long spears to stick in the bull and make him madder. Then came the Matador the proudest of all - he thought he was very handsome and bowed to the ladies. He had a red cape and a sword and was supposed to stick the bull last of all. Then came the bull and you know who that was don't you? - Ferdinand They called him Ferdinand the Fierce and all the Banderilleros were afraid of him and the Picadores were afraid of him and the Matador was scared stiff. Ferdinand ran to the middle of the ring and everyone shouted and clapped because they thought he was going to fight fiercely and butt and snort and stick his horns around. But not Ferdinand. When he got to the middle of the ring he saw the flowers in all the lovely ladies' hair and he just sat down quietly and smelled. So they had to take Ferdinand home. And for all I know he is sitting there still under his favorite cork tree smelling the flowers just quietly. He is very happy. The end]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Character traits

Simple Plot

Difficult names

Foreign words

Topic

Flowers

Differences

Bull Fighting

*Animals

Low Frequency Words

banderilleros	fiercely	fiercest	handsome	ladies
lonesome	madrid	matador	pasture	pawing
picadores	roughest	sword	understanding