Text Leveling System

Shark Attack

RDQ:	780	Max Word/Sent	38	Total Words	1057		Diff Words	428
Lex	700	Ave Word/.Sent	11	Hi Freq occurs	634	60%	Hi freq	155	36.2%
AR	3.2	Long Sentences	10.8	Low Freq occurs	51	4.8%	Low freq	49	11.4%

Shark attack!
Rodney Fox had almost run out of 
time. He needed to find a big fish - and 
he needed to find it soon. The young 
Australian was competing in an annual 
spearfishing championship. To win he 
had to find and catch a big local fish. 
Rodney had won the contest last year 
and he wanted to win again. But today 
something would happen. Something 
that would change his life forever.
Like all the other competitors in the 
contest Rodney wore a line fixed to his 
dive belt to hold the fish he had caught.]]
He and the other divers had been diving 
for several hours. They had caught a lot 
of fish and the water smelled of blood.
About half a mile offshore Rodney 
spotted a huge morwong - just the fish 
he needed to win! Carefully he aimed 
his spear gun at the fish.
CRASH! Something slammed hard 
into Rodney's side. He felt as if he had 
been hit by an express train!]] 
It was a great white shark! The force 
of the impact knocked the mask off his 
face and the spear gun from his hand. 
His left shoulder disappeared down the 
creature's throat. Then the shark bit 
down on Rodney's chest and back.
Rodney struggled to get free. He hit 
the shark with his fist. But the shark held 
tight and shook him back and forth.
Then Rodney remembered the 
weakest spot on a shark's body -  its 
eyes. With all his strength he rammed 
his right fist straight into the shark's 
eye. Incredibly the shark let go.]] 
Bleeding and running out of air 
Rodney struggled toward the surface. 
Could he make it to safety before the 
great white shark ate him alive?]] 
Rodney reached the surface and 
gasped for air. He'd made it! But then 
he looked down. The shark was racing 
straight for him. Its huge jaws lined 
with razor-sharp teeth were wide open!]] 
SNAP! The shark's jaws slammed 
shut again. But this time the shark 
swallowed the fish attached to Rodney's 
dive belt. Suddenly Rodney felt himself 
being pulled through the water - he was 
still attached to the line!
The shark began to drag him down 
into deep water. He struggled to undo 
his dive belt but the buckle had slipped 
around his back. He couldn't reach it.
Time was running out. If the shark 
didn't eat him Rodney
would drown.]] 
Suddenly the line snapped. Rodney 
was free! He struggled to the surface 
and shouted for help. Luckily friends in 
a nearby boat had seen the blood and 
quickly pulled him out of the water.
Rodney was seriously hurt. His rib 
cage lungs and the upper part of his 
stomach lay open from the huge gash 
where the shark had sunk its teeth in. 
The bite had crushed his ribs and 
punctured one of his lungs.]] 
Rodney was rushed to the hospital. 
Four hours of surgery and 462 stitches 
saved his life. But he would wear the 
ugly scar of the shark's bite forever.
The attack on 
Rodney was big 
news. The public 
frightened of more 
attacks demanded 
action to clear the 
local beaches of 
sharks. But Rodney 
thought differently.]]
Rodney didn't want to go out and kill 
sharks - he wanted to go out and learn 
more about the mysterious creature that
had nearly killed him. And he began a 
lifelong search to find out more about 
these silent hunters of the deep.
Only a few months after the attack 
Rodney was diving again. So he could 
study sharks up close Rodney designed 
and built the first shark cage.]] 
A shark cage is about the size of a 
small elevator car. It is made of very 
strong metal bars which are placed close 
enough together to keep a shark from 
biting the divers inside but still allow the 
divers a good view of the shark. Floats at 
the top keep the cage from sinking.
Today many people use shark cages. 
They allow divers and scientists to study 
and photograph sharks close up - but not 
quite as close as Rodney once came!]] 
Shark attacks - the facts
If you're terrified of sharks you're not 
alone. Shark attacks make frightening 
headlines and movies like Jaws spread 
the fear that sharks are bloodthirsty 
killers. In fact many people are scared 
just by the thought of sharks.
But the truth is that shark attacks 
are actually very rare. A person is far 
more likely to be hit by a car or struck 
by lightning than be attacked 
by a shark.]] 
There are over 350 different species -
or types - of sharks. And of these only 
about 30 have ever been known to 
attack humans. But there are three that 
are really dangerous: the great white 
shark the bull shark and the tiger shark.]] 
Whether or not you are in danger of 
a shark attack depends on where you 
live in the world. Sharks are found 
almost everywhere but they seem to 
prefer warm water. Most shark attacks 
happen in Australia Brazil California 
Florida Hawaii and South Africa. They 
often occur near crowded beaches where 
people go to swim sail and surf.]] 
But even in a very bad year sharks 
attack no more than 80 to 100 people in 
the whole world. And modern 
transportation and medical care mean 
that only 10 to 15 of these people die.
Even then sharks don't usually set
out to attack people. Often they ignore 
people in the water. So what makes a 
shark attack a human?]] 
Some people believe sharks attack 
when they feel threatened. A diver may 
unknowingly swim into a shark's 
territory. In this case a shark may only 
bite a human once. It will then release -
rather than eat - the invader. Perhaps
this is what happened to
diver Henry Bource. A 
single bite from a large shark 
resulted in him losing a leg.
Divers are sometimes 
attacked while carrying 
fish they have caught. 
The blood and frantic 
movements of the
dying fish attract
sharks who can
smell blood more
than a mile away.]] 
Sometimes a shark attack could be a 
case of mistaken identity. From a shark's 
point of view a surfer on a surfboard
looks like its favorite food - a seal. Once 
the shark has a taste of the board it will 
spit it out and go away. Many surfers 
are still alive to tell the tale with a 
munched surfboard
to prove it!]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Simple graphics supplementary to text comprehension

Vocabulary: Some difficult words

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Several Implications

Complexity: Several ideas - closely related

Features

Topic

Undersea Life

Ecology

Nature

Endangerment

Sharks

*Animals

Animals: Endangered

*Animal Life

Low Frequency Words

annual	bloodthirsty	championship	competing	competitors
creature's	designed	elevator	frantic	frightening
gash	hawaii	headlines	identity	ignore
impact	incredibly	invader	lifelong	likely
luckily	lungs	medical	mistaken	morwong
movements	munched	mysterious	occur	photograph
prove	public	punctured	rammed	razor
resulted	seriously	spearfishing	stitches	surf
surfboard	surfer	surfers	surgery	swallowed
terrified	territory	threatened	transportation	unknowingly