Text Leveling System

The Magic Finger

RDQ:	622	Max Word/Sent	41	Total Words	1990		Diff Words	482
Lex	660	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	1475	74.1%	Hi freq	246	51%
AR	3.0	Long Sentences	9.2	Low Freq occurs	10	0.5%	Low freq	9	1.9%

The farm next to ours is owned by Mr and 
Mrs Gregg. the Greggs have two children
both of them boys. Their names are Philip and 
William. Sometimes I go over to their farm to
play with them.
I am a girl and I am eight years old.
Philip is also eight years old.
William is three years older. He is ten.
What?
Oh all right then.
He is eleven.
Last week something very funny happened
to the Gregg family. I am going to tell you
about it as best I can.]]
Now the one thing that Mr Gregg and his 
two boys loved to do more than anything else 
was to go hunting. Every Saturday morning 
they would take their guns and go off into the 
woods to look for animals and birds to shoot. 
Even Philip who was only eight years old 
had a gun of his own.
I can't stand hunting. I just can't stand it. It 
doesn't seem right to me that men and boys 
should kill animals just for the fun they get out 
of it. So I used to try to stop Philip and 
William from doing it. Every time I went over 
to their farm I would do my best to talk them 
out of it but they only laughed at me.
I even said something about it once to Mr 
Gregg but he just walked on past me as if I 
wasn't there.]] 
Then one Saturday morning I saw Philip 
and William coming out of the woods with 
their father and they were carrying a lovely 
young deer.
This made me so cross that I started shouting 
at them.]]
 The boys laughed and made faces at me 
and Mr Gregg told me to go home and mind 
my own P's and Q's.
Well that did it!
I saw red.
And before I was able to stop myself I did 
something I never meant to do.
I PUT THE MAGIC FINGER ON THEM ALL!
Oh dear! Oh dear! I even put it on Mrs 
Gregg who wasn't there. I put it on the whole 
Gregg family.
For months I had been telling myself that I 
would never put the Magic Finger upon 
anyone again - not after what happened to 
my teacher old Mrs Winter.
Poor old Mrs Winter.
One day we were in class and she was 
teaching us spelling. 'Stand up' she said to 
me 'and spell cat.']]
'That's an easy one' I said. 'K-a-t.'
'You are a stupid little girl!' Mrs Winter 
said.
'I am not a stupid little girl!' I cried. 'I am 
a very nice little girl!'
'Go and stand in the corner' Mrs Winter 
said.
Then I got cross and I saw red and I put 
the Magic Finger on Mrs Winter good and 
strong and almost at once...
Guess what?]]
Whiskers began growing out of her face! They 
were long black whiskers just like the ones 
you see on a cat only much bigger. And how 
fast they grew! Before we had time to think 
they were out to her ears!
Of course the whole class started screaming 
with laughter and then Mrs Winter said 'Will 
you be so kind as to tell me what you find so 
madly funny all of you?']] 
And when she turned around to write something 
on the blackboard we saw that she had 
grown a tail as well! It was a huge bushy tail!
I cannot begin to tell you what happened 
after that but if any of you are wondering 
whether Mrs Winter is quite all right again 
now the answer is No. And she never will be.]] 
The Magic Finger is something I have been 
able to do all my life.
I can't tell you just how I do it because I 
don't even know myself.
But it always happens when I get cross 
when I see red .
Then I get very very hot all over. .
Then the tip of the forefinger of my right 
hand begins to tingle most terribly. .
And suddenly a sort of flash comes out of 
me a quick flash like something electric.
It jumps out and touches the person who 
has made me cross. ]]
 And after that the Magic Finger is upon 
him or her and things begin to happen...
Well the Magic Finger was now upon the 
whole of the Gregg family and there was no 
taking it off again.
I ran home and waited for things to 
happen.
They happened fast.
I shall now tell you what those things were. 
I got the whole story from Philip and William 
the next morning after it was all over.]]
In the afternoon of the very same day that I put the Magic Finger on the Gregg family, Mr Gregg and Philip and William went out hunting once again. This time they were going after wild ducks, so they headed towards the lake.
In the first hour they got ten birds. In the next hour they got another six.
`What a day!' cried Mr Gregg. `This is the best yet!' He was beside himself with joy.
Just then four more wild ducks flew over their heads. They were flying very low. They were easy to hit.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! went the guns.
The ducks flew on.
`We missed!' said Mr Gregg. `That's funny.' Then, to everyone's surprise, the four ducks turned around and came flying right back to the guns.
`Hey!' said Mr Gregg. `What on earth are they doing? They are really asking for it this time!' He shot at them again. So did the boys. And again they all missed!
Mr Gregg got very red in the face. `It's the light,' he said. `It's getting too dark to see. Let's go home.'
So they started for home, carrying with them the sixteen birds they had shot before. But the four ducks would not leave them alone. They now began flying around and around the hunters as they walked away.
Mr Gregg did not like it one bit. `Be off!' he cried, and he shot at them many more times, but it was no good. He simply could not hit them. All the way home those four ducks flew around in the sky above their heads, and nothing would make them go away.
Late that night, after Philip and William had gone to bed, Mr Gregg went outside to get some wood for the fire.
He was crossing the yard when all at once he heard the call of a wild duck in the sky.
He stopped and looked up. The night was very still. There was a thin yellow moon over the trees on the hill, and the sky was filled with stars. Then Mr Gregg heard the noise of wings flying low over his head, and he saw the
four ducks, dark against the night sky, flying very close together. They were going around and around the house.
Mr Gregg forgot about the firewood, and hurried back indoors. He was now quite afraid. He did not like what was going on. But he said nothing about it to Mrs Gregg. All he said was, `Come on, let's go to bed. I feel tired.'
So they went to bed and to sleep.
When morning came, Mr Gregg was the first to wake up.
He opened his eyes.
He was about to put out a hand for his watch, to see the time.
But his hand wouldn't come out.
`That's funny,' he said. `Where is my hand?' He lay still, wondering what was up. Maybe he had hurt that hand in some way? He tried the other hand.
That wouldn't come out either. He sat up.
Then, for the first time, he saw what he looked like!
He gave a yell and jumped out of bed.
Mrs Gregg woke up. And when she saw Mr Gregg standing there on the floor, she gave a yell, too.
For he was now a tiny little man!
He was maybe as tall as the seat of a chair, but no taller.
And where his arms had been, he had a pair of duck's wings instead!
`But ... but ... but . . .' cried Mrs Gregg, going purple in the face. `My dear man, what's happened to you?'
`What's happened to both of us, you mean!' shouted Mr Gregg.
It was Mrs Gregg's turn now to jump out of bed.
She ran to look at herself in the glass. But she was not tall enough to see into it. She was even smaller than Mr Gregg, and she, too, had got wings instead of arms.
`Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!' sobbed Mrs Gregg.
`This is witches' work!' cried Mr Gregg. And both of them started running around the room, flapping their wings.
A minute later Philip and William burst in. The same thing had happened to them. They had wings and no arms. And they were really tiny. They were about as big as robins.
`Mama! Mama! Mama!' chirruped Philip. `Look, Mama, we can fly!' And they flew up into the air.
`Come down at once!' said Mrs Gregg. `You're much too high!' But before she could say another word, Philip and William had flown right out the window.
Mr and Mrs Gregg ran to the window and looked out. The two tiny boys were now high up in the sky.
Then Mrs Gregg said to Mr Gregg, `Do you think we could do that, my dear?'
`I don't see why not,' Mr Gregg said. `Come on, let's try.'
Mr Gregg began to flap his wings hard, and all at once, up he went.
Then Mrs Gregg did the same.
`Help!' she cried as she started going up. `Save me!'
`Come on,' said Mr Gregg. `Don't be afraid.'
So out the window they flew, far up into the sky, and it did not take them long to catch up with Philip and William.
Soon the whole family was flying around and around together.
`Oh, isn't it lovely!' cried William. `I've always wanted to know what it feels like to be a bird!'
`Your wings are not getting tired, are they, dear?' Mr Gregg asked Mrs Gregg.
`Not at all,' Mrs Gregg said. `I could go on for ever!'
`Hey, look down there!' said Philip. 'Somebody is walking in our garden!'
They all looked down, and there below them, in their own garden, they saw four enormous wild ducks! The ducks were as big as men, and what is more, they had great long arms, like men, instead of wings.
The ducks were walking in a line to the door of the Greggs' house, swinging their arms and holding their beaks high in the air.
`Stop!' called the tiny Mr Gregg, flying down low over their heads. `Go away! That's my house!'
The ducks looked up and quacked. The first one put out a hand and opened the door of the house and went in. The others went in after him. The door shut.
The Greggs flew down and sat on the wall near the door. Mrs Gregg began to cry.
`Oh, dear! Oh, dear!' she sobbed. `They have taken our house. What shall we do? We have no place to go!'
Even the boys began to cry a bit now.
`We will be eaten by cats and foxes in the night!' said Philip.
`I want to sleep in my own bed!' said William.
`Now then,' said Mr Gregg. `It isn't any good crying. That won't help us. Shall I tell you what we are going to do?'
`What?' they said.
Mr Gregg looked at them and smiled. `We are going to build a nest.'
`A nest!' they said. `Can we do that?'
`We must do it,' said Mr Gregg. `We've got to have somewhere to sleep. Follow me.'
They flew off to a tall tree, and right at the top of it Mr Gregg chose the place for the nest.

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Inferences: Some implications

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Clear cause/effect

Simple Plot

Topic

Changes

Searching/Hunting

Magic

*Animals

Birds

Low Frequency Words

chirruped	flown	forefinger	laughter	madly
terribly	tingle	towards	whiskers