Text Leveling System

Jumanji

RDQ:	885	Max Word/Sent	30	Total Words	1794		Diff Words	600
Lex	720	Ave Word/.Sent	9	Hi Freq occurs	1179	65.7%	Hi freq	250	41.7%
AR	3.4	Long Sentences	7.8	Low Freq occurs	78	4.3%	Low freq	62	10.3%

"Now remember" Mother said "your father and I are bringing 
some guests by after the opera so please keep the house neat." 
"Quite so" added Father tucking his scarf inside his coat. 
Mother peered into the hall mirror and carefully pinned her 
hat in place then knelt and kissed both children good-bye. 
When the front door closed Judy and Peter giggled with delight. 
They took all the toys out of their toy chest and made 
a terrible mess. But their laughter slowly turned to silence till 
finally Peter slouched into a chair.
"You know what?" he said. "I'm really bored."
"Me too" sighed Judy. "Why don't we go outside and play?"]]
Peter agreed so they set off across the street to the park. It was 
cold for November. The children could see their breath like 
steam. They rolled in the leaves and when Judy tried to stuff 
some leaves down Peter's sweater he jumped up and ran behind 
a tree. When his sister caught up with him he was kneeling at 
the foot of the tree looking at a long thin box.
"What's that?" Judy asked.
"It's a game" said Peter handing her the box.
"JUMANJI" Judy read from the box ""A JUNGLE ADVENTURE 
GAME. "
"Look" said Peter pointing to a note taped to the bottom of 
the box. In a childlike handwriting were the words "Free game 
fun for some but not for all. P.S. Read instructions carefully." 
"Want to take it home?" Judy asked.
"Not really" said Peter. "I'm sure somebody left it here because 
it's so boring."
"Oh come on" protested Judy. "Let's give it a try. Race you 
home!" And off she ran with Peter at her heels.]]
At home the children spread the game out on a card table. 
It looked very much like the games they already had. There 
was a board that unfolded revealing a path of colored squares. 
The squares had messages written on them. The path started in 
the deepest jungle and ended up in Jumanji a city of golden 
buildings and towers. Peter began to shake the dice and play 
with the other pieces that were in the box.
"Put those down and listen" said Judy. "I'm going to read 
the instructions: "Jumanji a young people's jungle adventure 
especially designed for the bored and restless.
"'A. Player selects piece and places it in deepest jungle. 
B. Player rolls dice and moves piece along path through the 
dangers of the jungle. C. First player to reach Jumanji and yell 
the city's name aloud is the winner."'
"Is that all?" asked Peter sounding disappointed.
"No" said Judy "there's one more thing and this is in capital 
letters: "D. VERY IMPORTANT: ONCE A GAME OF JUMANJI IS 
STARTED IT WILL NOT BE OVER UNTIL ONE PLAYER REACHES 
The Golden CITY."']]
"Oh big deal" said Peter who gave a bored yawn.
"Here" said Judy handing her brother the dice "you go first." 
Peter casually dropped the dice from his hand.
"Seven" said Judy.
Peter moved his piece to the seventh square.
"'Lion attacks move back two spaces"' read Judy.
"Gosh how exciting" said Peter in a very unexcited voice. 
As he reached for his piece he looked up at his sister. She had 
a look of absolute horror on her face.
"Peter" she whispered "turn around very very slowly."
The boy turned in his chair. He couldn't believe his eyes. 
Lying on the piano was a lion staring at Peter and licking 
his lips.]]
The lion roared so loud it knocked Peter right off his chair. The 
big cat jumped to the floor. Peter was up on his feet running 
through the house with the lion a whisker's length behind. He 
ran upstairs and dove under a bed. The lion tried to squeeze 
under but got his head stuck. Peter scrambled out ran from the 
bedroom and slammed the door behind him. He stood in the 
hall with Judy gasping for breath.
"I don't think" said Peter in between gasps of air "that 
I want ... to play ... this game ... anymore."
"But we have to" said Judy as she helped Peter back downstairs. 
"I'm sure that's what the instructions mean. That lion 
won't go away until one of us wins the game."]]
Peter stood next to the card table. "Can't we just call the zoo 
and have him taken away?" From upstairs came the sounds
of growling and clawing at the bedroom door. "Or maybe we 
could wait till Father comes home."
"No one would come from the zoo because they wouldn't 
believe us" said Judy. "And you know how upset Mother would 
be if there was a lion in the bedroom. We started this game 
and now we have to finish it."
Peter looked down at the game board. What if Judy rolled a 
seven? Then there'd be two lions. For an instant Peter thought 
he was going to cry. Then he sat firmly in his chair and said 
"Let's play."
Judy picked up the dice rolled an eight and moved her piece. 
"'Monkeys steal food miss one turn; " she read. From the 
kitchen came the sounds of banging pots and falling jars. The 
children ran in to see a dozen monkeys tearing the room apart.]]
"Oh boy" said Peter "this would upset Mother even more than 
the lion."
"Quick" said Judy "back to the game."
Peter took his turn. Thank heavens he landed on a blank 
space. He rolled again. "Monsoon season begins lose one turn." 
Little raindrops began to fall in the living room. Then a roll of 
thunder shook the walls and scared the monkeys out of the 
kitchen. The rain began to fall in buckets as Judy took the dice.]]
"'Guide gets lost lose one turn."' The rain suddenly stopped. 
The children turned to see a man hunched over a map.
"Oh dear I say spot of bad luck now" he mumbled. "Perhaps 
a left turn here then ... No no ... a right turn here ... 
Yes absolutely I think a right turn ... or maybe. . ."
"Excuse me" said Judy but the guide just ignored her.
"... around here then over ... No no ... over here and 
around this ... Yes good ... but then ... Hm. . ."
Judy shrugged her shoulders and handed the dice to Peter.]]
". . . four five six" he counted. "'Bitten by tsetse fly contract 
sleeping sickness lose one turn."'
Judy heard a faint buzzing noise and watched a small insect 
land on Peter's nose. Peter lifted his hand to brush the bug away 
but then stopped gave a tremendous yawn and fell sound asleep 
his head on the table.
"Peter Peter wake up!" cried Judy. But it was no use. She 
grabbed the dice and moved to a blank. She rolled again and 
waited in amazement. "'Rhinoceros stampede go back two 
spaces."'
As fast as he had fallen asleep Peter awoke. Together they 
listened to a rumble in the hallway. It grew louder and louder. 
Suddenly a herd of rhinos charged through the living room and 
into the dining room crushing all the furniture in their path. 
Peter and Judy covered their ears as sounds of splintering wood 
and breaking china filled the house.]]
Peter gave the dice a quick tumble. "'Python sneaks into camp 
go back one space."'
Judy shrieked and jumped up on her chair.
"Over the fireplace" said Peter. Judy sat down again 
nervously eyeing the eight-foot snake that was wrapping itself 
around the mantel clock. The guide looked up from his map 
took one look at the snake and moved to the far corner of 
the room joining the monkeys on the couch.]]
Judy took her turn and landed on a blank space. Her brother 
took the dice and rolled a three.
"Oh no" he moaned. "'Volcano erupts go back three 
spaces."' The room became warm and started to shake a little.
 Molten lava poured from the fireplace opening. It hit the water 
on the floor and the room filled with steam. Judy rolled the dice 
and moved ahead.
"'Discover shortcut roll again. Oh dear!" she cried. Judy 
saw the snake unwrapping himself from the clock.
"If you roll a twelve you can get out of the jungle" said 
Peter.
"Please please" Judy begged as she shook the dice. The 
snake was wriggling his way to the floor. She dropped the dice 
from her hand. One six then another. Judy grabbed her piece 
and slammed it to the board. "JUMANJI" she yelled as loud 
as she could.]]
The steam in the room became thicker and thicker. Judy could 
not even see Peter across the table. Then as if all the doors 
and windows had been opened a cool breeze cleared the steam 
from the room. Everything was just as it had been before the 
game. No monkeys no guide no water no broken furniture 
no snake no lion roaring upstairs no rhinos. Without saying a 
word to each other Peter and Judy threw the game into its box. 
They bolted out the door ran across the street to the park and 
dropped the game under a tree. Back home they quickly put all 
their toys away. But both children were too excited to sit quietly 
so Peter took out a picture puzzle. As they fit the pieces together 
their excitement slowly turned to relief and then exhaustion. 
With the puzzle half done Peter and Judy fell sound asleep on 
the sofa.]]
"Wake up dears" Mother's voice called.
Judy opened her eyes. Mother and Father had returned and 
their guests were arriving. Judy gave Peter a nudge to wake him. 
Yawning and stretching they got to their feet.
Mother introduced them to some of the guests then asked 
"Did you have an exciting afternoon?"
"Oh yes" said Peter. "We had a flood a stampede a volcano 
I got sleeping sickness and-" Peter was interrupted by the 
adults' laughter.
"Well" said Mother "I think you both got sleeping sickness. 
Why don't you go upstairs and put your pajamas on? Then you 
can finish your puzzle and have some dinner."]]
When Peter and Judy came back downstairs they found that 
Father had moved the puzzle into the den. While the children 
were working on it one of the guests Mrs. Budwing brought 
them a tray of food.
"Such a hard puzzle" she said to the children. "Daniel and 
Walter are always starting puzzles and never finishing them." 
Daniel and Walter were Mrs. Budwing's sons. "They never read 
instructions either. Oh well" said Mrs. Budwing turning to 
rejoin the guests "I guess they'll learn."
Both children answered "I hope so;' but they weren't looking 
at Mrs. Budwing. They were looking out the window. Two 
boys were running through the park. It was Danny and Walter 
Budwing and Danny had a long thin box under his arm.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Inferences: Some implications

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Difficult names

Topic

Games

Imagination

*Entertainment & Fun

Low Frequency Words

absolute	absolutely	amazement	casually	charged
designed	disappointed	exhaustion	eyeing	gasping
guide	handing	handwriting	herd	horror
hunched	ignored	instant	instructions	interrupted
introduced	joining	jumanji	kneeling	knelt
laughter	mantel	messages	molten	monsoon
nervously	nudge	opera	peered	python
raindrops	rejoin	restless	revealing	scarf
scrambled	season	selects	seventh	shortcut
shrugged	sickness	slouched	sounding	splintering
stampede	sweater	tearing	tremendous	tsetse
unexcited	unfolded	whisker's	wrapping	wriggling
yawn	yawning