Text Leveling System

The Hobbit

RDQ:	3800	Max Word/Sent	79	Total Words	3453		Diff Words	920
Lex	1120	Ave Word/.Sent	15	Hi Freq occurs	2599	75.3%	Hi freq	378	41.1%
AR	9.0	Long Sentences	31	Low Freq occurs	213	6.2%	Low freq	152	16.5%

An Unexpected Party
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty 
dirty wet hole filled with the ends of worms and an
 oozy smell nor yet a dry bare sandy hole with nothing 
in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole and 
that means comfort.
It had a perfectly round door like a porthole painted
green with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. 
The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a 
tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke with 
panelled walls and floors tiled and carpeted provided
 with polished chairs and lots and lots of pegs for hats 
and coats - the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel 
wound on and on going fairly but not quite straight into
 the side of the hill - The Hill as all the people for many
 miles round called it - and many little round doors 
opened out of it first on one side and then on another. 
No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms bathrooms 
cellars pantries (lots of these) wardrobes (he had
 whole rooms devoted to clothes) kitchens dining-
rooms all were on the same floor and indeed on the 
same passage. The best rooms were all on the lefthand
 side (going in) for these were the only ones to have  
windows deep-set round windows looking over his 
garden and meadows beyond sloping down to the river.
This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit and his]] 
name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the 
neighborhood of The Hill for time out of mind and 
people considered them very respectable not only 
because most of them were rich but also because they 
never had any adventures or did anything unexpected:
you could tell what a Baggins would say on any 
question without the bother of asking him. This is a story of 
how a Baggins had an adventure and found himself 
doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may 
have lost the neighbors' respect but he gained - well 
you will see whether he gained anything in the end.
The mother of our particular hobbit - what is a hobbit? 
I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays 
since they have become rare and shy of the Big People 
as they call us. They are (or were) a little people about 
half our height and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. 
Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic 
about them except the ordinary everyday sort which 
helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large 
stupid folk like you and me come blundering along 
making a noise like elephants which they can hear a 
mile off. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they 
dress in bright colors (chiefly green and yellow); wear 
no shoes because their feet grow natural leathery soles 
and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads 
(which is curly); have long clever brown fingers good-
natured faces and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially 
after dinner which they have twice a day when they can 
get it). Now you know enough to go on with. As I was 
saying the mother of this hobbit - of Bilbo Baggins 
that is - was the fabulous Belladonna Took one of the 
three remarkable daughters of the Old Took head of the 
hobbits who lived across The Water the small river that 
ran at the foot of The Hill. It was often said (in other 
families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must 
have taken a fairy wife. That was of course absurd]] 
but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbit-like about them and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures. They discreetly disappeared and the family hushed it up; but the fact remained that the Tooks were not as respectable as the Bagginses though they were undoubtedly richer.
Not that Belladonna Took ever had any adventures after she became Mrs. Bungo Baggins. Bungo that was Bilbo's father built the most luxurious hobbit-hole for her (and partly with her money) that was to be found either under The Hill or over The Hill or across The Water and there they remained to the end of their days. Still it is probable that Bilbo her only son although he looked and behaved exactly like a second edition of his solid and comfortable father got something a bit queer in his makeup from the Took side something that only waited for a chance to come out. The chance never arrived until Bilbo Baggins was grown up being about fifty years old or so and living in the beautiful hobbit-hole built by his father which I have just described for you until he had in fact apparently settled down immovably.
By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world when there was less noise and more green and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed)---Gandalf came by. Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went in the most extraordinary fashion. He had not been down that way under The Hill for ages and ages not since his friend the Old Took died in fact and the hobbits had almost forgotten what he looked like. He]] 
had been away over The Hill and across The Water on business of his own since they were all small hobbit-boys and hobbit-girls.
All that the unsuspecting Bilbo saw that morning was an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat a long grey cloak a silver scarf over which a white beard hung down below his waist and immense black boots.
"Good morning!" said Bilbo and he meant it. The sun was shining and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.
"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"
"All of them at once" said Bilbo. "And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you sit down and have a fill of mine! There's no hurry we have all the day before us!" Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door crossed his legs and blew out a beautiful grey rIng of smoke that sailed up into the air without breaking and floated away over The Hill.
"Very pretty?" said Gandalf. "But I have no time to blow smoke-rings this morning. I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging and it's very difficult to find anyone."
"I should think so-in these parts! We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them" said our Mr. Baggins and stuck one thumb behind his braces and blew out another even bigger smoke-ring. Then he took out his morning letters and began to read pretending to take no more notice of the old man. He had decided that he was not quite his sort and wanted him to go away.]] 
But the old man did not move. He stood leaning on his stick and gazing at the hobbit without saying anything till Bilbo got quite uncomfortable and even a little cross.
"Good morning!" he said at last. "We don't want any adventures here thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water." By this he meant that the conversation was at an end.
"What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!" said Gandalf. "Now you mean that you want to get rid of me and that it won't be good till I move off."
"Not at all not at all my dear sir! Let me see I don't think I know your name?'
"Yes yes my dear sir - and I do know your name Mr. Bilbo Baggins. And you do know my name though you don't remember that I belong to it. I am Gandalf and Gandalf means me! To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took's son as if I was selling buttons at the door!"
"Gandalf Gandalf! Good gracious me! Not the wandering wizard that gave Old Took a pair of magic diamond studs that fastened themselves and never came undone till ordered? Not the fellow who used to tell such wonderful tales at parties about dragons and goblins and giants and the rescue of princesses and the unexpected luck of widows' sons? Not the man that used to make such particularly excellent fireworks! I remember those! Old Took used to have them on Midsummer's Eve. Splendid! They used to go up like great lilies and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and hang in the twilight all evening!" You will notice already that Mr. Baggins was not quite so prosy as he liked to believe also that he was very fond of flowers. "Dear me!"
he went on. "Not the Gandalf who was responsible for so many quiet lads and lasses going off into the Blue for mad adventures. Anything from climbing trees to visiting Elves - or sailing in ships sailing to other shores! Bless]] 
me life used to be quite inter - I mean you used to upset things badly in these parts once upon a time. I beg your pardon but! had no idea you were still in business."
"Where else should I be?' said the wizard. "All the same I am pleased to find you remember something about me. You seem to remember my fireworks kindly at any rate and that is not without hope. Indeed for your old grandfather Took's sake and for the sake of poor Belladonna I will give you what you asked for."
"1 beg your pardon I haven't asked for anything!"
"Yes you have! Twice now. My pardon. I give it you. In fact I will go so far as to send you on this adventure. Very amusing for me very good for you- and profitable too very likely if you ever get over it."
"Sorry! I don't want any adventures thank you. Not today. Good morning! But please come to tea-any time you like! Why not tomorrow? Come tomorrow! Good-bye!" With that the hobbit turned and scuttled inside his round green door and shut it as quickly as he dared not to seem rude. Wizards after all are wizards.
"What on earth did I ask him to tea for!" he said to himself as he went to the pantry. He had only just had breakfast but he thought a cake or two and a drink of something would do him good after his fright.
Gandalf in the meantime was still standing outside the door and laughing long but quietly. After a while he stepped up and with the spike of his staff scratched a queer sign on the hobbit's beautiful green front-door. Then he strode away just about the time when Bilbo was finishing his second cake and beginning to think that he had escaped adventures very well.
The next day he had almost forgotten about Gandalf. He did not remember things very well unless he put them down on his Engagement Tablet: like this: Gandalf Tea Wednesday. Yesterday he had been too flustered to do anything of the kind.]] 
Just before tea-time there came a tremendous ring on the front-door bell and then he remembered! He rushed and put on the kettle and put out another cup and saucer and an extra cake or two and ran to the door.
"I am so sorry to keep you waiting!" he was going to say when he saw that it was not Gandalf at all. It was a dwarf with a blue beard tucked into a golden belt and very bright eyes under his dark-green hood. As soon as the door was opened he pushed inside just as if he had been expected.
He hung his hooded cloak on the nearest peg and "Dwalin at your service!" he said with a low bow.
"Bilbo Baggins at yours!" said the hobbit too surprised to ask any questions for the moment. When the silence that followed had become uncomfortable he added: "I am just about to take tea; pray come and have
some with me." A little stiff perhaps but he meant it kindly. And what would you do if an uninvited dwarf came and hung his things up in your hall without a word of explanation?
They had not been at table long in fact they had hardly reached the third cake when there came another even louder ring at the bell.
"Excuse me!" said the hobbit and off he went to the door.
"So you have got here at last!" was what he was going to say to Gandalf this time. But it was not Gandalf. Instead there was a very old-looking dwarf on the step with a white beard and a scarlet hood; and he too hopped inside as soon as the door was open just as if he had been invited.
"I see they have begun to arrive already" he said when he caught sight of Dwalin's green hood hanging up. He hung his red one next to it and "Balin at your service!" he said with his hand on his breast.
"Thank you!" said Bilbo with a gasp. It was not the]]
correct thing to say, but they have begun to arrive had flustered him badly. He liked visitors, but he liked to know them before they arrived, and he preferred to ask them himself. He had a horrible thought that the cakes might run short, and then he-as the host: he knew his duty and stuck to it however painful-he might have to go without.
"Come along in, and have some tea!" he managed to say after taking a deep breath.
"A little beer would suit me better, if it is all the same to you, my good sir," said Balin with the white beard. "But I don't mind some cake-seed-cake, if you have any."
"Lots!" Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise; and he found himself scuttling off, too, to the cellar to fill a pint beer-mug, and then to a pantry to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes which he had baked that afternoon for his after-supper morsel.
When he got back Balin and Dwalin were talking at the table like old friends (as a matter of fact they were brothers). Bilbo plumped down the beer and the cake in front of them, when loud came a ring at the bell again, and then another ring. "Gandalf for certain this time," he thought as he puffed along the passage. But it
was not. It was two more dwarves, both with blue hoods, silver belts, and yellow beards; and each of them carried a bag of tools and a spade. In they hopped, as soon as the door began to open-Bilbo was hardly surprised at all.
"What can I do for you, my dwarves?" he said.
"Kili at your service!" said the one. "And Fili!" added the other; and they both swept off their blue hoods and bowed.
"At yours and your family's!" replied Bilbo, remembering his manners this time.
"Dwalin and Balin here already, I see," said Kili. "Let us join the throng!" "Throng!" thought Mr. Baggins. "I don't like the sound of that. I really must sit down for a minute and collect my wits, and have a drink." He had only just had a sip-in the corner, while the four dwarves sat round the table, and talked about mines and gold and troubles with the goblins, and the depredations of dragons, and lots of other things which he did not understand, and did not want to, for they sounded much too adventurous-when, ding-dung-a-ling-dang, his bell rang again, as if some naughty little hobbit-boy was trying to pull the handle off.
"Someone at the door!" he said, blinking.
"Some four, I should say by the sound," said Fili. "Besides, we saw them coming along behind us in the distance."
The poor little hobbit sat down in the hall and put his head in his hands, and wondered what had happened, and what was going to happen, and whether they would all stay to supper. Then the bell rang again louder than ever, and he had to run to the door. It was not four after all, it was FIVE. Another dwarf had come along while he was wondering in the hall. He had hardly turned the knob, before they were all inside, bowing and saying "at your service" one after another, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, and Gloin were their names; and very soon two purple hoods, a grey hood, a brown hood, and a white hood were hanging on the pegs, and off they marched with their broad hands stuck in their gold and silver belts to join the others. Already it had almost become a throng. Some called for ale, and some for porter, and one for coffee, and all of them for cakes; so the hobbit was kept very busy for a while.
A big jug of coffee had just been set in the hearth, the seed-cakes were gone, and
the dwarves were starting on a round of buttered scones, when there came-a loud knock. Not a ring, but a hard rat-tat on the hobbit's beautiful green door. Somebody was banging with a stick!
Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered-this was the most awkward Wednesday he ever remembered. He pulled open the door with a jerk, and they all fell in, one on top of the other. More dwarves, four more! And there was Gandalf behind, leaning on his staff and laughing. He had made quite a dent on the beautiful door; he had also, by the way, knocked out the secret mark that he had put there the morning before.
"Carefully! Carefully!" he said. "It is not like you, Bilbo, to keep friends waiting on the mat, and then open the door like a pop-gun! Let me introduce Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and especially Thorin!"
"At your service!" said Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur standing in a row. Then they hung up two yellow hoods and a pale green one; and also a sky-blue one with a long silver tassel. This last belonged to Thorin, an enormously important dwarf, in fact no other than the great Thorin Oakenshield himself, who was not at all pleased at falling flat on Bilbo's mat with Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur on top of him. For one thing Bombur was immensely fat and heavy. Thorin indeed was very haughty, and said nothing about service; but poor Mr. Baggins said he was sorry so many times, that at last he grunted "pray don't mention it," and stopped frowning.
"Now we are all here!" said Gandalf, looking at the row of thirteen hoods-the best detachable party hoods-and his own hat hanging on the pegs. "Quite a merry gathering! I hope there is something left for the latecomers to eat and drink! What's that? Tea! No thank you! A little red wine, I think for me."
"And for me," said Thorin.
"And raspberry jam and apple-tart," said Bifur. "And mince-pies and cheese," said Bofur. "And pork-pie and salad," said Bombur.
"And more cakes-and ale-and coffee, if you don't mind," called the other dwarves through the door.
"Put on a few eggs, there's a good fellow!" Gandalf called after him, as the hobbit stumped off to the pantries. "And just bring out the cold chicken and pickles!" "Seems to know as much about the inside of my larders as I do myself!" thought]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: No support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: Many difficult words

Language: Colorful, figurative

Sentences: Many Long Complex

Text structure: Difficult

Inferences: Required

Complexity: Several unrelated ideas

Concepts: Abstract/Difficult

Chapters

Headings

Sequence of Events: Chronological

Mature concepts: With common experiences or clear fantasy

Features

Character traits

Integral Setting - Historical

Complex Problem/Solution

Complex plot

Difficult names

Topic

Travel/Traveling

Dragons

Wizard

Gold

Rescue

*Fictional Ideas/Charac

Low Frequency Words

absurd	adventures	adventurous	amusing	ancestors
apparently	bargain	bewuthered	blundering	bowing
breast	carpeted	cellar	cellars	chiefly
conversation	curious	depredations	detachable	diamond
discreetly	disturbing	dwalin	dwalin's	dwarves
engagement	enormously	escaped	excellent	extraordinary
fabulous	fashion	fastened	fellow	fili
flustered	folk	fruity	further	gandalf
gathering	gazing	gloin	goblins	gracious
grey	grunted	haughty	hearth	height
hobbit	hobbit's	hobbits	hooded	host
immense	immensely	immovably	inclined	inter
introduce	kili	kindly	knob	laburnums
larders	lasses	latecomers	leathery	lefthand
likely	lilies	luxurious	meadows	meantime
mention	midsummer's	mince	morninged	morsel
natured	naughty	neighborhood	neighbors	nori
nowadays	numerous	oakenshield	oin	oozy
ordinary	ori	panelled	pantries	pantry
pardon	particular	particularly	passage	pint
plumped	porter	preferred	probable	profitable
prosperous	prosy	provided	raspberry	remarkable
respect	respectable	responsible	rude	sake
saucer	scarf	scarlet	scuttled	scuttling
service	sloping	snapdragons	soles	spike
splendid	sprouted	staff	strode	studs
stumped	swept	tablet	tassel	thorin
throng	tiled	tobacco	took's	tooks
tremendous	twilight	uncomfortable	undoubtedly	unexpected
uninvited	unsuspecting	wandering	wardrobes	widows
wizards	woolly