Text Leveling System

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

RDQ:	4972	Max Word/Sent	68	Total Words	3950		Diff Words	1213
Lex	1180	Ave Word/.Sent	16	Hi Freq occurs	2666	67.5%	Hi freq	357	29.4%
AR	9.0	Long Sentences	43.6	Low Freq occurs	600	15.2%	Low freq	435	35.9%

A Floating Reef
In the year 1866 the whole maritime population of
Europe and America was excited by a mysterious and
inexplicable phenomenon. this excitement was not
confined to merchants, common sailors, sea-captains,
shippers and naval officers of all countries, but the
governments of many states on the two continents
were deeply interested.
The excitement was caused by an enormous 'something '
that ships were often meeting. It was a long,
spindle-shaped, and sometimes phosphorescent object,
much larger and more rapid than a whale.
The different accounts that were written of this
object in various log-books agreed generally as to its
structure, wonderful speed, and the peculiar life with
which it appeared endowed. If it was a cetacean it
surpassed in bulk all those that had hitherto been
classified. Moreover, reliable sightings many leagues
apart, yet close in time, showed that the monster could
move at tremendous speed, and was at home in warm
water or in cold.
In all the great centres the monster became the
fashion; it was sung about in the cafés, scoffed at in
the newspapers, and represented at all the theatres. It
gave opportunity for hoaxes of every description. In]]
all newspapers short of copy imaginary beings 
reappeared, from the white whale, the terrible 'Moby 
Dick ' of the northern regions, to the inordinate 
'kraken ', whose tentacles could fold round a vessel of 
500 tons burden and drag it down to the depths of the 
ocean.
Then broke out the interminable polemics of 
believers and disbelievers in learned societies and 
scientific journals. The 'question of the monster ' inflamed 
all minds. The journalists who professed to be scientific, 
at strife with those who professed to be witty, 
poured out streams of ink during this memorable 
controversy.
In the year of 1867 some fresh facts changed it from 
a scientific problem to be solved to a real and serious 
danger to be avoided. On 5 March, the Moravian, of 
the Montreal Ocean Company, sailing in the north-
west Atlantic, struck her starboard quarter on a rock 
which no chart gave in that point. She was then going 
at the rate of thirteen knots under the combined efforts 
of the wind and her 400 horse power. Had it not been 
for the more than ordinary strength of the hull in the 
Moravian she would have been broken by the shock, 
and have gone down with the 237 passengers she was 
bringing from Canada.
This fact, extremely grave in itself, would perhaps 
have been forgotten, like so many others, if a few 
weeks afterwards it had not happened again under 
identical circumstances, only, thanks to the nationality 
of the ship that was this time victim of the shock, and 
the reputation of the company to which the vessel 
belonged, the circumstance was immensely commented 
upon.]] 
On 13 April, by a smooth sea and favourable breeze, the Cunard steamer Scotia was in the north-east Atlantic. She was going at the rate of thirteen knots under the pressure of her 1,000 horse power.
At 4.17 p.m., as the passengers were assembled at dinner in the great saloon, a slight shock was felt on the hull of the Scotia, on her quarter a little aft of the paddle.
The Scotia had not struck anything, but had been struck by some sharp and penetrating rather than blunt surface. The shock was so slight that no one on board would have been uneasy at it had it not been for the carpenter's watch, who rushed upon deck, calling out 'She is sinking! She is sinking!'
At first the passengers were much alarmed, but Captain Anderson hastened to reassure them by telling them the danger could not be imminent, as the ship was divided into seven compartments by strong divisions, and could with impunity brave any leak.
Captain Anderson went down immediately into the hold and found that a leak had sprung in the fifth compartment, and the sea was rushing in rapidly. Happily there were no boilers in this compartment, or the fires would have been at once put out. Captain Anderson ordered the engines to be immediately stopped, and one of the sailors dived to ascertain the extent of the damage. Some minutes after it was ascertained that there was a large hole about two yards in diameter in the ship's bottom. Such a leak could not be stopped, and the Scotia, with her paddles half submerged, was obliged to continue her voyage. She was then 300 miles from Cape Clear, and after three days' delay, which caused great anxiety in Liverpool, she entered the company's docks.]] 
The engineers then proceeded to examine her in the dry dock, where she had been placed. They could scarcely believe their eyes; at two yards and a half below water-mark was a regular rent in the shape of an isosceles triangle. The place where the piece had been taken out of the iron plates was so sharply defined that it could not have been done more neatly by a punch. The perforating instrument that had done the work was of no common stamp, for after having been driven with prodigious force, and piercing an iron plate one and three-eighths of an inch thick, it had been withdrawn by some wonderful backward movement.
Such was the last fact, and it again awakened public opinion on the subject. After that all maritime disasters which could not be satisfactorily accounted for were put down to the account of the monster. All the responsibility of the numerous wrecks annually recorded at Lloyd's was laid to the charge of this fantastic animal, and they usually amount to 3,000, of which 200 are lost by unknown causes.
Thanks to the 'monster ', communication between the two continents became more and more difficult; the public loudly demanded that the seas should be rid of the formidable cetacean at any price.]] 
FOR AND AGAINST
At the period when these events were happening I was returning from a scientific expedition into Nebraska, in the United States. In my position as Professor in the Paris Museum of Natural History, the French Government had attached me to that expedition. I arrived at New York, loaded with precious collections made during six months in Nebraska, at the end of March. My departure for France was fixed for the beginning of May. Whilst I waited and was occupying myself with classifying my mineralogical, botanical, and zoological riches, the incident happened to the Scotia.
I was perfectly acquainted with the subject which was the question of the day, and it would have been strange had I not been. I had repeatedly read all the American and European papers without being any the wiser as to the cause. The mystery puzzled me, and I hesitated to form any conclusion.
When I arrived at New York the subject was hot. The hypothesis of a floating island or reef, which was supported by incompetent opinion, was quite abandoned, for unless the shoal had a machine in its stomach, how could it change its position with such marvellous rapidity? For the same reason the idea of a floating hull or gigantic wreck was given up.]] 
There remained, therefore, two possible solutions of the enigma which created two distinct parties; one was that the object was a colossal monster, the other that it was a submarine vessel of enormous motive power. This last hypothesis, which, after all, was admissible, could not stand against inquiries made in the two hemispheres. It was hardly probable that a private individual should possess such a machine. Where and when had he caused it to be built, and how could he have kept its construction secret? Certainly a government might possess such a destructive engine, and it was possible in these disastrous times, when the power of weapons of war has been multiplied, that, without the knowledge of others, a state might possess so formidable a weapon.
But the hypothesis of a war machine fell before the declaration of different governments.
On my arrival at New York, several persons did me the honour of consulting me about the phenomenon in question. I had published in France a work in two volumes, called The Mysteries of the Great Submarine Grounds. This book made some sensation in the scientific world, and gained me a special reputation in this rather obscure branch of Natural History. As long as I could deny the reality of the fact I kept to a decided negative, but I was soon driven into a corner, and was obliged to explain myself categorically. The Honourable Pierre Aronnax, Professor in the Paris Museum, was asked by the New York Herald to give his opinion on the matter. I subjoin an extract from the article which I published on 30 April:
After having examined the different hypotheses one by one,]] 
and all other suppositions being rejected, the existence of a marine animal of excessive strength must be admitted.
The greatest depths of the ocean are totally unknown to us. What happens there? What beings can live twelve or fifteen miles below the surface of the sea? We can scarcely conjecture what the organization of these animals is. We either know all the varieties of beings that people our planet or we do not. If we do not know them all, nothing is more reasonable than to admit the existence of fishes or cetaceans of an organization suitable to the strata inaccessible to soundings, which for some reason or other come up to the surface at intervals.
If, on the contrary, we do know all living species, we must of course look for the animal in question amongst the already classified marine animals, and in that case I should be disposed to admit the existence of a gigantic narwhal.
The common narwhal, or sea-unicorn, is often sixty feet long. This size increased five to tenfold, and a strength in proportion to its size being given to the cetacean, and its offensive arms being increased in the same proportion, you obtain the animal required.
The narwhal is armed with a kind of ivory sword or halberd, as some naturalists call it. It is the principal tusk, and is as hard as steel. Some of these tusks have been found embedded in the bodies of whales, which the narwhal always attacks with success. Others have been with difficulty taken out of ships' bottoms, which they pierced through and through like a gimlet in a barrel. The Museum of the Paris Faculty of Medicine contains one of these weapons, two and a quarter yards in length and fifteen inches in diameter at the base.
Now suppose this weapon to be ten times stronger, and its possessor ten times more powerful, hurl it at the rate of twenty miles an hour, and you obtain a shock that might produce the catastrophe required. Therefore, until I get]] 
fuller information, I shall suppose it to be a sea-unicorn of colossal dimensions.

My article was well received, and provoked much discussion amongst the public. It rallied a certain number of partisans. Opinion was soon made up as to the nature of the phenomenon, and the public admitted without argument the existence of the prodigious animal which had nothing in common with the fabulous sea serpents.
But if some people saw in this nothing but a purely scientific problem to solve, others more positive, especially in America and England, were of opinion to purge the ocean of this formidable monster, in order to reassure transmarine communications. The United States were first in the field, and preparations for an expedition to pursue the narwhal were at once begun in New York. A very fast frigate, the Abraham Lincoln, was put in commission, and the arsenals were opened to Captain Farragut, who actively hastened the arming of his frigate.
But, as generally happens, from the moment it was decided to pursue the monster, the monster was not heard of for two months. So when the frigate had been prepared for a long campaign, and furnished with formidable fishing apparatus, they did not know where to send her to. Impatience was increasing with the delay, when on 2 July it was reported that a steamer of the San Francisco line, from California to Shanghai, had met with the animal three weeks before in the north Pacific Ocean.
The emotion caused by the news was extreme, and twenty-four hours only were granted to Captain]] 
Farragut before he sailed. The ship was already victualled and well stocked with coal. The crew were there to a man, and there was nothing to do but to light the fires.
Three hours before the Abraham Lincoln left Brooklyn Pier I received the following letter:

To M. ARONNAX, Professor of the Paris Museum, Fifth Avenue Hotel,
New York.
SIR, If you would like to join the expedition of the Abraham Lincoln, the United States Government will have great pleasure in seeing France represented by you in the enterprise. Captain Farragut has a cabin at your disposition.
Faithfully yours,
J. B. HOBSON,

Secretary of Marine.]]
As MONSIEUR PLEASES
Three seconds before the arrival of J. B. Hobson's letter I had no more idea of pursuing the unicorn than of attempting the North-west Passage. Three seconds after having, read the secretary's letter I had made up my mind that ridding the world of this monster was my veritable vocation and the single aim of my life.
'Conseil!' I called in an impatient tone. 'Conseil!'
Conseil was my servant, a faithful fellow who accompanied me in all my journeys, a brave Dutchman I had great confidence in; he was placid by nature, regular from principle, zealous from habit, showing little astonishment at the varied surprises of life, very skilful with his hands, apt at any service, and, in spite of his name, never giving any counsel, even when not asked for it.
By dint of contact with the world of savants in our Jardin des Plantes, Conseil had succeeded in knowing something. He was a specialist, well up in the classification of Natural History, but his science stopped there. As far as practice was concerned, I do not think he could have distinguished a cachalot from a whale. And yet what a brave fellow he was!
Conseil had followed me during the last ten years wherever science had directed my steps. He never]] 
complained of the length or fatigue of a journey, or of having to pack his trunk for any country, however remote, whether China or Congo.
But Conseil had one fault. He was intensely formal, and would never speak to me except in the third person, which was sometimes irritating.
'Conseil!' I repeated, beginning my preparations for departure with a feverish hand.
Certainly, I was certain of this faithful fellow. Usually I did not ask him if it was or was not convenient for him to accompany me on my travels; but this time an expedition was in question which might be a very long and hazardous one, in pursuit of an animal capable of sinking a frigate like a nutshell. There was matter for reflection even to the most impassive man in the world. What would Conseil say?
'Conseil!' I called for the third time.
Conseil appeared.
'Did monsieur call me?' said he on entering.
'Yes, my boy. Get yourself and me ready to start in two hours.'
'As it pleases monsieur,' answered Conseil calmly.
'There is not a minute to lose. Pack up all my travelling utensils, as many coats, shirts and socks as you can get in. Make haste!'
'And monsieur's collections?' asked Conseil.
'We will see to them presently. I will give orders to have our menagerie forwarded to France.'
'We are not going back to Paris, then?' asked Conseil.
'You know about the monster, Conseil - the famous narwhal. We are going to rid the seas of it. The author of the Great Submarine Grounds cannot do otherwise]] 
than embark with Commander Farragut. A glorious mission, but dangerous too. We don't know where we are going to. Those animals may be very capricious! But we will go, whether or no! We have a captain who will keep his eyes open.'
'As monsieur does I will do,' answered Conseil.
'But think, for I will hide nothing from you. It is one of those voyages from which people do not always come back.'
'As monsieur pleases.'
A quarter of an hour afterwards our trunks were ready.
When we arrived at the Abraham Lincoln, our luggage was at once sent on board, and we soon followed it. I asked for Captain Farragut. One of the sailors conducted me to the poop, where I found myself in the presence of a pleasant-looking officer, who held out his hand to me.
'Monsieur Pierre Aronnax?' he said.
'Himself,' replied I. 'Do I see Captain Farragut?'
'In person. You are welcome, professor. Your cabin is ready for you.'
I bowed, and leaving the commander to his duties, went down to the cabin which had been prepared for me.]] 
NED LAND
Captain Farragut was a good seaman, worthy of the frigate he was commanding. His ship and he were one. He was the soul of it. No doubt arose in his mind on the question of the cetacean, and he did not allow the existence of the animal to be disputed on board. The monster existed, and he had sworn to deliver the seas from it.
The officers on board shared the opinion of their chief. It was amusing to hear them talking, arguing, disputing and calculating the different chances of meeting whilst they kept a sharp look-out over the vast extent of ocean. More than one took up his position on the crosstrees who would have cursed the duty as a nuisance at any other time. And nevertheless the Abraham Lincoln was not yet ploughing with her stern the suspected waters of the Pacific.
As to the crew, all they wanted was to meet the unicorn, harpoon it, haul it on board, and cut it up. Captain Farragut had offered a reward of 2,000 dollars to the first cabin-boy, sailor, or officer who should signal the animal. I have already said that Captain Farragut had carefully provided all the tackle necessary for taking the gigantic cetacean. A whaler would not have been better furnished. We had every known]] 
engine, from the hand harpoon to the barbed arrow of the blunderbuss and the explosive bullets of the deck-gun. On the forecastle lay a breechloader. This weapon could throw with ease a conical projectile, weighing nine pounds, to a mean distance of ten miles. Thus the Abraham Lincoln not only possessed every means of destruction, but, better still, she had on board Ned Land, the king of harpooners.
Ned Land was a Canadian of uncommon skill, who had no equal in his perilous employment. He possessed ability, sang-froid, audacity, and subtleness to a remarkable degree, and it would have taken a sharp whale or a singularly wily cachalot to escape his harpoon. He was about forty years of age, tall, strongly built, grave, and taciturn, sometimes violent, and very passionate when put out. His person, and especially the power of his glance, which gave a singular expression to his face, attracted attention.
I believe that Captain Farragut had done wisely in engaging this man. He was worth all the rest of the ship's company as far as his eye and arm went. I could not compare him to anything better than a powerful telescope which would be a cannon always ready to fire as well.
However, Ned Land hardly believed in the narwhal, and he was the only one on board who did not share the universal conviction.
One magnificent evening, three weeks after our departure, on 30 July, the frigate was abreast of Cape Blanc, thirty miles to leeward of the Patagonian coast. We had crossed the tropic of Capricorn, and the Straits of Magellan lay less than 700 miles to the south. Another week and the Abraham Lincoln would be ploughing the waters of the Pacific.]] 
Seated on the poop, Ned Land and I were talking on all sorts of subjects, looking at that mysterious sea whose greatest depths have remained till now inaccessible to the eye of man. I brought the conversation naturally to the subject of the giant unicorn, and discussed the different chances of success in our expedition. Then seeing that Ned Land let me go on talking without saying anything himself, I pressed him more closely.
'Well, Ned,' I said to him, 'are you not yet convinced of the existence of the cetacean we are pursuing? Have you any particular reasons for being so incredulous?'
The harpooner looked at me for some minutes before replying, struck his forehead with a gesture habitual to him, shut his eyes as if to collect himself, and said at last:
'Perhaps I have, M. Aronnax.'
'Yet you, Ned, are a whaler by profession. You are familiar with the great marine mammalia, and your imagination ought easily to accept the hypothesis of enormous cetaceans. You ought to be the last to doubt in such circumstances.'
Ned replied, 'I have pursued many cetaceans, harpooned a great number, and killed some few; but however powerful or well armed they were, neither their tails nor their defences could ever have made an incision in the iron plates of a steamer.'
'Yet, Ned, it is said that ships have been bored through by the tusk of a narwhal.'
'Wooden ships, perhaps,' answered the Canadian, 'though I have never seen it, and until I get proof to the contrary I deny that whales, cachalots, or sea-unicorns could produce such an effect.']] 
'Listen to me, Ned.'
'No, sir, no; anything you like but that a gigantic squid perhaps?'
'No, that can't be. The squid is only a mollusc; its flesh is too soft.'
'Then you really do believe in this cetacean, sir?' said Ned.
'Yes, Ned. I repeat it with a conviction resting on the logic of facts. I believe in the existence of a mammal, powerfully organized, belonging to the branch of vertebrata, like whales, cachalots, and dolphins, and furnished with a horn tusk, of which the force of penetration is extreme.'
'Hum!' said the harpooner, shaking his head like a man who will not let himself be convinced.
'Remark, my worthy Canadian,' I continued, 'if such an animal exists and inhabits the depths of the ocean, it necessarily possesses an organization the strength of which would defy all comparison.'
'Why must it have such an organization?' asked Ned.
'Because it requires an incalculable strength to keep in such deep water and resist its pressure. If vertebrata can maintain themselves in such depths, especially those whose surface is represented by millions of square inches, it is by hundreds of millions of pounds we must estimate the pressure they bear. Calculate, then, what must be the resistance of their bony structure and the strength of their organization to withstand such a pressure.'
'They must be made of iron plate eight inches thick!' said Ned.
'Yes, and think what destruction such a mass could]] 
cause if hurled with the speed of an express against the hull of a ship.'
Ned would not give in.
'Have I not convinced you?' I said.
'You have convinced me of one thing, sir, which is that if such animals do exist at the bottom of the sea they must be as strong as you say.'
'But if they do not exist, Mr Obstinate, how do you account for the Scotia's accident?'
'Because it is - ' began Ned hesitatingly.
'Go on!'
'Because it is not true!' answered the Canadian. This answer proved the obstinacy of the harpooner and nothing else.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: No support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: Many difficult words

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Many Long Complex

Text structure: Difficult

Inferences: Several Implications

Complexity: Several unrelated ideas

Concepts: Abstract/Difficult

Table of Contents

Chapters

Prior Knowledge: Basic understanding.

Sequence of Events: Mostly chronological

Mature Concepts: With some uncommon experiences

Features

Character traits

Integral Setting

Complex plot

Topic

*Science

Adventures

Ocean

Machines

Underground

Sea

Low Frequency Words

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admissible	aft	amongst	amusing	annually
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arsenals	article	ascertain	ascertained	assembled
astonishment	audacity	awakened	believers	blanc
blunderbuss	botanical	breechloader	burden	cachalot
cachalots	cafés	calculate	calculating	calmly
campaign	capricious	capricorn	catastrophe	categorically
centres	cetaceans	circumstance	circumstances	classification
classifying	colossal	commission	communication	communications
comparison	compartment	compartments	concerned	conclusion
conducted	confidence	confined	conical	conjecture
construction	consulting	continents	contrary	controversy
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engines	enigma	enterprise	estimate	european
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extreme	extremely	fabulous	faculty	familiar
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isosceles	ivory	jardin	journalists	journals
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leagues	leeward	liverpool	lloyd's	logic
luggage	magellan	magnificent	maintain	mammal
mammalia	marine	maritime	marvellous	medicine
memorable	menagerie	merchants	mineralogical	mission
moby	mollusc	monsieur	monsieur's	montreal
moravian	moreover	motive	movement	multiplied
mysteries	mysterious	narwhal	nationality	naturalists
naturally	nature	naval	nebraska	necessarily
negative	nevertheless	northern	nuisance	numerous
object	obliged	obscure	obstinacy	obstinate
occupying	offensive	opinion	opportunity	ordinary
organization	organized	otherwise	ought	pacific
paris	particular	partisans	passage	passengers
passionate	patagonian	peculiar	penetrating	penetration
perforating	perilous	phenomenon	phosphorescent	pier
pierced	piercing	placid	plantes	pleasant
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principle	private	probable	proceeded	prodigious
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reasons	reassure	recorded	reef	reflection
regions	rejected	reliable	remarkable	repeatedly
replying	represented	reputation	required	requires
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sailor	sailors	saloon	satisfactorily	savants
scarcely	science	scientific	scoffed	scotia
scotia's	seaman	secretary	secretary's	sensation
servant	service	shanghai	shared	shippers
shoal	singular	singularly	skilful	societies
solutions	soul	soundings	specialist	spindle
spite	sprung	starboard	stern	stocked
straits	strata	strife	structure	subjoin
submarine	submerged	subtleness	suitable	suppositions
surpassed	suspected	sword	sworn	taciturn
tenfold	tentacles	theatres	transmarine	tremendous
triangle	uncommon	unicorn	unicorns	universal
unknown	utensils	varieties	various	veritable
vertebrata	vessel	victualled	violent	vocation
volumes	voyage	voyages	weapons	weighing
whaler	whilst	wily	withdrawn	withstand
witty	worth	worthy	zealous	zoological