Text Leveling System

Young Arthur Ashe

RDQ:	763	Max Word/Sent	22	Total Words	844		Diff Words	347
Lex	690	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	464	55%	Hi freq	120	34.6%
AR	3.2	Long Sentences	1	Low Freq occurs	73	8.6%	Low freq	50	14.4%

Arthur Ashe was a champion tennis 
player. He won many tournaments. He
also won the hearts of people all over the 
world by helping others.]]
Arthur Ashe Jr. was born in 1943 in
Richmond Virginia. His family had been 
in America since 1735 when one of his 
ancestors was brought from West Africa
as a slave.
In 1863 during the Civil War President
Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. But that
did not end the troubles of African Americans.]]
When Arthur was born Southern
communities were segregated. White
people had separate schools from black
people. They even had separate playgrounds.]]
Arthur grew up in a house near a large 
playground for blacks only. There were
four tennis courts there. That was where
Arthur learned to play.]]
Arthur had a younger brother Johnnie.
Arthur's father was a park policeman. Mr.
Ashe had to raise his sons by himself.
Arthur's mother had died when Arthur
was only 6 years old.]]
Mr. Ashe took his sons to church every 
Sunday. He made sure they learned to
help others. Sometimes Arthur went with
his father to bring clothes and food to
families in need.]]
Other boys in Arthur's neighborhood
played football. But Mr. Ashe would not let 
Arthur play because he was not very big
and strong. Instead he gave his son a 
tennis racket.
Once Mr. Ashe saw Arthur get angry and
throw his tennis racket on the ground.
The next thing Arthur knew his father
was marching over to the tennis court!
Arthur never threw another racket.]]
When Arthur was 10 Dr. Robert Walter
Johnson Jr. began coaching him. Dr.
Johnson taught him how to play tennis
well. Arthur learned how to stay calm and
be polite on the court.]]
This self-control helped Dr. Johnson's
players win. A player who gets angry can
lose his concentration - and lose the game.]]
Arthur played against other black children
in local park tournaments. But because of
segregation he was not allowed to play in
city tournaments. Those were for white
children only.]]
When Arthur was 17 he went to live in
St. Louis Missouri where he could
practice with some of the best white
tennis players. And he won his first
national tennis championship!]]
When he finished high school Arthur
went to the University of California at Los
Angeles (U C L A). He began playing in all 
the big tennis tournaments.
In 1966 He won the National Collegiate 
Athletic Association (N C A A) singles and
doubles championships. He also earned a
college degree.]]
Arthur became a lieutenant in the Army.
He taught computer classes at West Point.
And he played tennis. In 1968 he was the
first African-American to win the U.S.
Open men's singles championship.]]
In 1970 Arthur won the Australian Open
tournament. And in 1975 he won one of the 
most important tournaments of all - the
Wimbledon singles championship in England.]]
By this time segregation had ended in the 
United States. But South Africa was still a
segregated country. The South African
Open tennis tournament was for white
players only.
In 1973 Arthur got the government of
South Africa to let him play in the 
tournament. He hoped this would help
end segregation there.
Arthur had taken on of the first steps
toward speaking out against segregation
in South Africa.]]
In 1979 when Arthur was only 36 years 
old he had a heart attack. He had to have
on operation on his heart. In 1980 Arthur
retired from playing professional tennis.]]
But Arthur still coached the U.S. Davis
Cup tennis team which plays teams from 
all over the world. He helped raise money
for the American Heart Association and
the United Negro College Fund.]]
Arthur helped young people in cities get
involved in sports and do well in school.
He worked with groups to stop segregation
in South Africa.]]
Arthur got married in 1977. In 1986
he and his wife Jeanne had a daughter.
They named her Camera.]]
Arthur wrote about sports for magazines and
newspapers. He talked about tennis matches
on TV. He wrote a series of books called
A Hard Road to Glory about blacks in sports.]]
In 1983 Arthur had another operation on
his heart. At that time doctors were just 
finding out about AIDS. This disease is
caused by a virus called H.I.V.]]
No one knew it then but when Arthur had
surgery he probably received an H.I.V. - 
infected blood transfusion. In 1988 his
doctors found out he had the AIDS virus.
In 1992 he told the world about his illness.
AIDS takes away the body's ability to fight
illness. Arthur had to take medicines to
help fight off infections.]]
But he still worked to help African-
American teenagers compete in sports
and finish high school. And he started an
organization to help find a cure for AIDS.]]
In January 1993 Arthur caught pneumonia.
His family friends and fans all over the
world were shocked and saddened when
he died of Aids on February 6.]]
Arthur's tennis championships earned him 
a place in sports history. And his courage
and caring will always inspire people to do
their best to make our world a better place.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Several Implications

Concepts: Abstract/Complex Social

Features

Character traits

Topic

Athletes

*History

Overcoming

African Americans

Slavery

Health

Tennis

*Movement & Sports

Low Frequency Words

ability	ancestors	association	championship	championships
coaching	college	collegiate	concentration	courage
cure	disease	freed	glory	government
illness	infected	infections	inspire	involved
january	jeanne	lieutenant	magazines	medicines
missouri	national	neighborhood	operation	organization
playgrounds	pneumonia	president	professional	racket
retired	richmond	saddened	segregated	segregation
separate	series	southern	surgery	teenagers
tournament	tournaments	virus	wimbledon	younger