Text Leveling System

My Visit to the Dinosaurs

RDQ:	448	Max Word/Sent	15	Total Words	795		Diff Words	323
Lex	620	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	484	60.9%	Hi freq	123	38.1%
AR	2.6	Long Sentences	0	Low Freq occurs	53	6.7%	Low freq	38	11.8%

Yesterday I went to see the dinosaurs.
I went with my father and my little sister. 
We walked down a hall turned a corner-
and there they were.
Skeletons. Real dinosaur skeletons.
They were standing in a room bigger than a house. 
One skeleton was almost as long as the room.
It looked scary.
My father told my sister and me not to be afraid. 
Dinosaurs lived millions of years ago.
No dinosaurs are alive today.]]
I took a picture of the long dinosaur APATOSAURUS. 
Then I went over and looked closer.
The skeleton was wired together. 
Heavy rods held it up.
I could see that some of the bones were not real. 
They were made of plaster.
What a job it must have been to put 
this huge puzzle together.
How could anyone know where all the pieces fit?]]
When dinosaurs died they were covered with sand and mud. 
They were buried for millions of years. The sand and mud 
turned into rock and the dinosaurs' bones became fossils. 
In 1822 the first dinosaur fossil was found.
It was found by accident.
After that many diggers went looking for fossils. 
They dug in the rocky earth.
It is hard work to take fossils from the ground. 
They are often embedded in solid rock.]]
The diggers found fossil bones of dinosaurs. 
They found fossil eggs which dinosaurs 
had laid in sandy pits.
They even found fossil baby dinosaurs.]]
Paleontologists studied the fossils carefully.
A paleontologist is a scientist who studies animals 
and plants of the past.
Paleontologists know when dinosaurs lived and where. 
They know what most dinosaurs ate.]]
Some dinosaurs ate meat. They were carnivores.
Most dinosaurs ate plants. They were herbivores.]]
Apatosaurus was a giant plant eater.
This is how it looked when it was alive.
Apatosaurus's eyes and nostrils 
were high on its flat head.
It could wade in deep water and still breathe.]]
BRACHIOSAURUS was the heaviest dinosaur of all. Some say it weighed over 100000 pounds. Brachiosaurus had a nostril on the top of its head. It spent much of its time in swamps eating tons of soft mushy plants.
But it laid its eggs on dry land.]]
DIPLODOCUS was the longest dinosaur of all.
It was 90 feet long from its tiny head to the tip of its tail. It had a little mouth and just a few teeth.
Diplodocus had to eat almost without stopping in order to fill its huge body.]]
IGUANODON was a smaller plant eater. It walked mostly on two legs.
It had spiked thumbs and a powerful tail to swat its enemies.
Iguanodon had hundreds of flat teeth. When one tooth wore out
another grew in its place.]]
ANATOSAURUS was a duck-billed dinosaur. It was a good swimmer.
Its front feet were webbed and its "bill" was shaped like a duck's.
It had more than 1000 teeth to crush and grind its food.]]
ALLOSAURUS was a meat eater.
Meat-eating dinosaurs were fast fierce hunters. Allosaurus ran on two strong legs.
It had dangerous claws and long pointed teeth. It ate any dinosaur it could find.
It was not even afraid to attack one twice its size.]]
My father my sister and I went to another hall and looked at more skeletons.
There were so many to see that we had to hurry.]]
ORNITHOLESTES was small and fierce. It was swift enough to catch birds.
ORNITHOMIMUS had no teeth at all.
It may have eaten the eggs of other dinosaurs and fruit and insects too.]]
ANKYLOSAURUS was an armored dinosaur. It lived on land and ate plants.
It had plenty of protection from meat eaters. Who would want to bite its thick leathery skin covered with bony armor?]]
We saw STEGOSAURUS a plated dinosaur. It had big bony plates down its back and a dangerous spiked tail.
Its brain was the size of a walnut.]]
We saw horned dinosaurs too. MONOCLONIUS had one horn on its nose.
STYRACOSAURUS had a horn on its nose and a collar of spikes around its neck.]]
And TRICERATOPS had three deadly horns-one on its nose and one over each eye.
A big fan-shaped bone protected its neck.
My father said Triceratops could defend itself even against Tyrannosaurus rex.
I wondered who Tyrannosaurus rex was.]]
Then I saw it.
TYRANNOSAURUS was king of the dinosaurs. And the fiercest of them all.
When it walked on its huge hind legs the earth shook and other dinosaurs ran.
But Tyrannosaurus caught them clawed them and ate them with its long sharp teeth.]]
I had to stand far away from TYRANNOSAURUS to take its picture.
My father and sister looked tiny next to it.
I was glad Tyrannosaurus isn't alive anymore.
When you go to the museum you will see what I mean.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Simple phrases

Text structure: Oral/Natural

Features

Difficult names

Topic

Dinosaurs

*Animals

Museums

*Entertainment & Fun

Low Frequency Words

allosaurus	anatosaurus	ankylosaurus	apatosaurus	apatosaurus's
brachiosaurus	carnivores	diplodocus	embedded	fiercest
fossil	heaviest	herbivores	hind	iguanodon
leathery	monoclonius	nostril	nostrils	ornitholestes
ornithomimus	paleontologist	paleontologists	plaster	plated
protection	scientist	spiked	stegosaurus	studied
studies	styracosaurus	swamps	swat	triceratops
tyrannosaurus	weighed	wired