Text Leveling System

Small Pig

RDQ:	233	Max Word/Sent	21	Total Words	797		Diff Words	243
Lex	490	Ave Word/.Sent	7	Hi Freq occurs	482	60.5%	Hi freq	97	39.9%
AR	2.0	Long Sentences	1	Low Freq occurs	9	1.1%	Low freq	7	2.9%

The small pig
lives in a pigpen on a farm.
The small pig likes to eat,
and he likes to run around the barnyard,
and he likes to sleep.
But most of all
the small pig likes to sit down
and sink down
in good, soft mud.
The farmer and his wife love the small pig.
"We think you are
the best pig in the world," they say.
One morning the farmer's wife says, "Today I will clean my house."
She cleans the upstairs.
Then she cleans the downstairs.
"My house is spotless," says the farmer's wife, "but the rest of this farm is very dirty.
I will get to work and clean it up."
The farmer's wife cleans the barn and the stable
and the chicken coop.
Then she comes to the pigpen.
"Heaven!" cries the farmers wife.
"This is the dirtiest spot of all."
So she cleans the pigpen,
and she washes the pig.
"That's better," says the farmer's wife.
"Now everything is neat and shiny."
"Where is my good, soft mud?"
asks the small pig.
"I guess it is gone,"
says the farmer."I'm sorry."
The small pig is more than sorry.
He is angry.
"This place is too neat and shiny for me," he says.
And that night the small pig runs away.
Soon he finds a swamp. "Ah!" cries the small pig. "Here is good, soft mud."
The small pig sits down and sinks down into the mud.
"Lovely, lovely," he says, and then he goes to sleep.
"Ouch!" says the small pig as a dragonfly bumps into his nose.
"Oops!" says the small pig as a frog jumps onto his head.
"Yow!" says the small pig. A turtle is biting his tail.
"Move yourself out of here!" says a big snake. "You are taking up space that belongs to us."
So the small pig moves himself out of there in a hurry and runs on down the road.
"Here is a very dirty place," says the small pig.
"There is sure to be some good, soft mud nearby."
The small pig finds broken bottles and old television sets. He finds kitchen sinks and empty soup cans, but he does not find mud.
"Cars are fun," says the small pig, "but not as much fun as mud."
"Sofas are soft," says the small pig, "But not as soft as mud."
Then he sees something that he does not like at all. "That is why there is no mud around here!" cries the small pig.
And he runs on down the road.
At the end of the road is a large city.
"Even the air is dirty here," says the pig. "There is sure to be some good, soft mud nearby."
Soon the small pig finds what he is looking for. "Ah!" he says. "Here is mud."
Then he sits down and sinks down into the good, soft mud.
"This mud is strange," says the small pig. "It is not very soft at all. In fact, it is getting harder and harder."
He tries to get up, but he cannot move.
Soon a few people stop to stare at the small pig.
More and more people come to see the small pig.
Then many, many people come to look
because they have never seen a pig stuck in the sidewalk.
The farmer and his wife drive by in their car.
"Look at that big crowd of people," says the farmer.
"Let's stop and see what is happening."
"All right," says the farmer's wife, but hurry. We must keep looking for our lost pig."
The farmer stops the car. 
"What is happening here?" he asks a man.
"Oh, nothing much," says the man. "There is just a pig stuck in the sidewalk."
"Heavens!" cries the farmer's wife. "That is our pig that's stuck in the sidewalk!"
"Call the police! Call the firemen!" shouts the farmer.
By this time everyone in the city has come to see the small pig. The policemen hold back the huge crowd.
The firemen bring tools to break the sidewalk.
"Please," says the farmers wife, "be very careful. We think that pig is the best in the world."
The firemen work very carefully, and soon the small pig is free. He jumps into the arms of the farmer and his wife.
They all drive home together.
Just as they come to the farm the sky turns dark, and a storm begins.
It rains and rains.
The farmer says, "Look! Now there is a brand new mud puddle in the pigpen."
The farmer's wife says,"And I promise never to clean it up again."
So the small pig runs into the pigpen. First he has his supper.
Then he sits down and sinks down into the good, soft mud.
The End.

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: Few decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Features

Present Tense

Topic

*Animals

Adaptability

Animals: Farm

Low Frequency Words

coop	dirtiest	firemen	policemen	spotless
stable	swamp