Text Leveling System

Panda

RDQ:	567	Max Word/Sent	25	Total Words	1047		Diff Words	404
Lex	650	Ave Word/.Sent	10	Hi Freq occurs	668	63.8%	Hi freq	159	39.4%
AR	2.9	Long Sentences	4.1	Low Freq occurs	57	5.4%	Low freq	44	10.9%

In a mountain forest of southwestern China
a giant panda sits in a birch tree.]]
Snowflakes fall on her black and 
white fur but she does not look for shelter.]]
She has lived in snow 
most of her life.]]
Early one autumn she found
a den in a rocky mountainside.
There she made a nest out
of broken bamboo stalks.
While frosty winds blew through
the forest she gave birth to her cub.]]
The cub was so tiny
she could easily be covered
by one of her mother's paws.
She weighed only five ounces.
She was smaller that a kitten but she had
a loud voice that sounded like a baby's cry.]]
The cub had just a thin covering of white fur.
Only her mother's warmth kept her alive.
Day and night the mother 
panda held her cub tightly
against her large warm body.
She never put her down.]]
For several days the mother panda
stayed in the den and nursed her cub.
Eventually she had to eat.]]
Carefully she looked outside.
She sniffed the chilly air. She listened
to the sounds of the forest.
Then carrying her cub
in one paw she left the den.]]
She did not have far to go for food.
Still cradling her cub she ate some of
the bamboo that grew all around her.]]
Soon the cub began to look like her mother.]]
By the time she was one month old
she had a soft thick coat
of black and white fur.
She could not crawl yet
but she could roll around a little.]]
Now her mother could leave her
for a short time.  Before she left
the mother panda always put her in a hidden place.
At the cub's first cry she hurried back
to soothe her by stroking her with a paw.]]
The cub grew quickly.  At two months she weighed
seven pounds twenty times more than when she was born.
He voice was softer now a kind of bleating sound.
The mother panda played with her
tossing her gently between her paws.]]
All the time the cub's eyes
had been closed.  She lived
in a world of sounds and smells.
She could hear her mother's heart beating.  She could
smell her and feel her warmth
but she could not see her.]]
At two-and-a-half months
her eyes opened
and she began to see
the world around her.]]
She saw bamboo growing in tall thickets
that stayed green all winter.
There were spruce birch
and maple trees.  Sometimes
a golden monkey swung on the branches.]]
Birds flew overhead
the titmouse the nuthatch
and laughing thrush.]]
At three months she was able to crawl.
Now she could explore the world on her own.
Often while her mother slept.
the cub sniffed over everything
she could find.]]
The cub did not spend all her time exploring.
Sometimes she just played.]]
In the spring the cub
was five months old and still
lived on her mother's milk.
She weighed twenty pounds.
One day while her mother was eating
bamboo the cub nibbled a leaf.]]
She crunched a thin shoot
with her milk teeth.  As her jaws
became stronger she ate
bigger and bigger stalks.
He mother could eat woody stalks
an inch-and-a-half thick.]]
The mother liked to eat some leaves first.
Holding the stalk she let herself
fall slowly backwards.]]
The mother panda ate
twenty pounds of bamboo every day.
Giant pandas have special linings
in their throats and stomachs to protect them.
They can even swallow splinters without being hurt.]]
summer came.  To escape the heat
the cub and her mother went up to the cool
meadows above the forest.
In the meadows they ate irises and 
crocuses vines and tufted grasses.]]
A panda has a special bone
in its wrist that works like a thumb
so it can pick things up
with a very delicate grasp.]]
Now the cub was able to take care of herself
but she stayed with her mother a while longer.
She kept growing and getting stronger.
When she was a year old she weighed eighty pounds.]]
Her coat became wiry.
She lost her milk teeth
and grew large permanent teeth.
Then she went off to live on her own.]]
But she was not alone in the forest.
Little red pandas watched her 
from their nests.
Pheasants flapped out of her way.]]
Takins tramped past her.
She learned to catch mice and birds
which she sometimes ate.]]
She was not afraid of any animals
but the snow leopard and the wild dog.]]
Honey from the beehive of a mountain farmer
was a special treat but she could get it
only when no one was looking.]]
Her roly-poly walk was not very fast or graceful
but with her short powerful legs
she could go through the thickest forest.]]
The pads on her feet 
were covered with hair
giving her a good grip on the 
steepest icy mountainside.
She could even swim a 
mountain stream if she had to.]]
she did most of her roaming
in twilight or darkness.  She slept for a while
before dawn and again in the afternoon
when the sun was high.]]
At the age of six she was fully grown
and old enough to mate.  She weighed 240 pounds
and was six feet long from nose to tail.]]
Male pandas are bigger.  Fully grown
they weigh about 300 pounds.]]
One spring day she heard the bleat 
of a make panda.  He was following a trail of
scent marks she had left in the forest.]]
She made the marks by rubbing
a scent gland under her tail
against trees and rocks.]]
The male panda was also leaving
a trail of scent marks.
Soon the two pandas found each other
by following the marks.]]
On this day both pandas were ready to mate.
The female approached the male panda.  He took her
firmly in his front paws and they mated.]]
Then each panda went its own way again.
The female will have a cub of her own
in about five months.  It will be born 
in the autumn just as she was.]]
She may live for another twenty years or more
and raise many cubs.  Even so giant pandas are rare.
They are found only in these mountains
their wilderness home.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Simple phrases

Text structure: Formal

Inferences: Some implications

Features

Topic

Life Cycle

Nature

*Animals

China/Chinese

Bears

Low Frequency Words

approached	birch	crocuses	delicate	eventually
exploring	fully	gland	graceful	grasp
irises	leopard	linings	maple	mated
meadows	mountainside	nuthatch	ounces	permanent
pheasants	roaming	scent	soothe	southwestern
splinters	spruce	stalk	stalks	steepest
stomachs	swallow	takins	thickets	thrush
titmouse	tramped	tufted	twilight	warmth
weighed	wiry	woody	wrist