Text Leveling System

In the Desert

RDQ:	388	Max Word/Sent	29	Total Words	387		Diff Words	202
Lex	600	Ave Word/.Sent	9	Hi Freq occurs	228	58.9%	Hi freq	75	37.1%
AR	2.4	Long Sentences	2.3	Low Freq occurs	26	6.7%	Low freq	21	10.4%

It's dark.
It's smooth.
It's moist.
It breathes and sniffs.
It's a nose of course.
But who knows whose nose?]]
It's the very nose of a coyote and a very good nose it is!
A coyote's nose is one million times better at smelling things than your nose. 
Thanks to its good sense of smell a coyote can find food far away or underground.]]
In bright light this eye is just a narrow slit.
After dark it opens wide and looks for flies.]]
The eye belongs to a gecko.
Geckos are lizards.
They can walk on walls ceilings and even glass windows.
Geckos will go almost anywhere to catch a fly!]]
Are these white spiders?
Or are they part of a plant that wants to be left alone?]]
These are the spines of a desert cactus.
Man desert animals would love to eat the cactus because it stores water in it's stem.
But animals do want a mouthful of spines!
When spring rains come the cactus blooms with colorful blossoms.]]
If you shake this it will rattle. 
But you don't want to shake this kind of rattle! 
It belongs to a]]
rattlesnake!
Poisonous snakes like this diamondback rattlesnake use their rattles to warn other animals to stay away.
They do not want to bite.
They would rather be left in peace.]]
These long whiskers belong to a small animal with a keen sense of smell.]]
This mouse eats grasshoppers.
It is called a grasshopper mouse.
It uses its long whiskers to sense when a coyote is near.
When it feels movement it scurries off.
It does not want to be the coyotes meal.]]
You could get stung by this if you get too close.
Watch your step!]]
It's a stinger at the end of a scorpion's tail.
A scorpion's stinger is filled with poison.
If you sleep in the desert shake out your shoes in the morning to make sure no scorpions have moved in]]
Is this leg hairy enough for you?
If not there are seven more hairy legs where this one came from.]]
Tarantulas are the world's biggest spiders.
Some are so large that they can eat lizards small birds and mice.
The hairs on a tarantula's leg vibrate slightly when other animals are moving nearby.
The vibrations help the giant spider find its food.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Formal

Features

Topic

Spiders

Deserts

Reptiles

*Animals

Mammals

*Geography

*Habitats/Environments

*Animal Life

Low Frequency Words

coyote's	coyotes	diamondback	gecko	geckos
keen	mouthful	movement	peace	poisonous
scorpion's	scorpions	scurries	spines	stinger
stung	tarantula's	tarantulas	vibrations	warn
whiskers