Text Leveling System

Zeke Pippin

RDQ:	1221	Max Word/Sent	43	Total Words	1260		Diff Words	568
Lex	780	Ave Word/.Sent	10	Hi Freq occurs	808	64.1%	Hi freq	203	35.7%
AR	4.0	Long Sentences	14.7	Low Freq occurs	132	10.5%	Low freq	120	21.1%

Moseying down his street one morning, Zeke Pippin found a harmonica.
He didn't exactly find it. It fell at his feet from a garbage wagon that
happened to be rumbling by.
That piece of garbage changed his whole life.]]
Zeke took the harmonica home and thoroughly cleaned it with his tooth-
brush, using his father's schnapps as a disinfectant. And then he spent
countless hours, wherever he could find solitude, even out in the rain some-
times, training his mouth to blow the sounds out and suck them in. He
proved to be a natural musician.]]
Finally, one Sunday in June, when the family was lazing around the 
living room, Zeke whipped out his harmonica and started regaling them
with the prelude to La Traviata. ""Wow!"" said his sister. ""Bravo, Zekey!""
his mother cried.
Even his father crowed, ""Isn't that boy a Pippin.""]]
But the next moment they were all fast asleep! And it was the same story
at every single one of Zeke's would-be concerts. Somehow the Pippins
went out like a light, no matter how merry the music.]]
Their rudeness (his father not only slept but snored) was like a slap in 
the face. ""Is this bunch really my family, the ones who claim they love
me?"" Zeke asked. ""How can I go on living under the same roof with such
nincompoops?""]]
Zeke pretended to be indifferent to this insulting behavior, but one 
night he secretly packed two suitcases, the first with food, the second
mostly with food. At the brink of dawn, with his harmonica in one pocket
and all his cash in the other, he tiptoed down the stairs and left home.]]
Zeke lugged his bags down to his""private beach,"" where he had a raft
hidden in the bushes. He dragged it out and made sure it was shipshape, 
then shoved and shimmied it into the river, loaded it with his stuff, and
hopped aboard.]]
And there he was. As the red sun rose, the independent Zeke Pippin
was drifting down the Hinkaholly River, face-to-face with the wide-open
sky. Sometimes his raft turned this way, sometimes that way, and some-
times it twisted completely around.
After a while he snacked on a slew of bagels plastered with peanut
butter. Later, when his mouth came unglued, he zeezled and zoozled on his
harmonica.]]
Stuffed with bagels, Zeke nodded off. Nodding back on, he noticed he 
had company - an egret. He decided to treat his visitor to some good music.
Guess what happened. The bird fell fast asleep. Just like his family!]]
Hmmmm. Zeke studied his instrument, and for the first time it struck him
that it had no label. Was this some kind of weird magic harmonica that
had fallen from the town garbage?]]
An excursion boat, churning up the river, presented the opportunity for
an experiment. Zeke launched into a jolly folk tune, and as he pretty much
expected, the passengers started clapping - then dozed off.
No two ways about it now. Zeke was the owner of a supernatural mouth
organ.]]
Pondering this remarkable piece of garbage, he slid into dreamland.
There he found his poor mother and father, and his poor brother and
sister, all crying their hearts out, showering their clothes and the carpet 
with hot tears, asking how they could possibly go on without their oh-so-
beloved Ezekiel. ""If I don't see my angel again soon,"" his mother wailed,
""I'll shoot myself!""]]
Zeke woke up crying too, reviling himself for his lack of faith in his
family. He knew he must bring them surcease of their sorrow, as swiftly as
possible, and clear up this painful misunderstanding. And since the raft
wouldn't float upstream, he'd have to find his way home on foot.]]
As the sun was thinking of setting, Zeke was struggling to reach shore,
pausing now and then to fortify himself with some licorice.
""Take it easy, pal, we'll help you,"" called the first of three dogs who
came wading out.
""Thanks a million, guys,"" Zeke cried as the dogs tugged him in.
But once on solid ground, the Samaritans began researching his baggage.
""Hey, look at this,"" the leader chortled, ""coconut mushmellow cookies!""]]
""Lay off,"" Zeke said. ""It's my stuff!""
""Ha, ha, it's his stuff,"" joked the one-eared foxhound.
""Yipes! A harmonica,"" yelped the dalmatian, yanking it from Zeke's
pocket.
""Money!"" the foxhound announced, digging into his other pocket.
""Have a heart, fellas,"" Zeke pleaded. ""Give me my harmonica and let
me go. Please. You can keep the rest - all of it.""]]
""Listen, porky,"" the leader snarled, ""you'd better shut your yap if you
want to stay in one piece.""
The dogs hustled Zeke to a run-down shack, where they tied his arms
behind his back and began debating how to dispose of him.
""Let's drown him,"" the dalmatian suggested.
""How about baking him?"" said the hound. ""We could have baked ham,
ham sandwiches, chitlins, pig's knuckles, et cetera.""
""Nope, he's too darned fat,"" said the leader. ""We'll just leave him here,
nicely tied up.""]]
""How about a goodbye song?"" said the dalmatian. She pressed the 
harmonica to her lips, but all that came out was froo fra free
frink!
""Put a lid on it!"" barked the leader.
""I can show you what to do,"" Zeke offered, ""if you untie me.""
""We ain't untyin' nobody,"" said the leader.
""All right, don't untie me. Just hold it to my mouth.""]]
The dalmatian obliged, Zeke commenced to play, and exactly as he'd
planned, the villains conked out. As the dalmatian dropped to the floor,
Zeke managed to hang on to the harmonica with his teeth.
He slipped past the criminals he'd so cleverly bamboozled, butted the
door open, and started up the path by the river.]]
With the half-moon half helping, Zeke threaded his way through a 
confusion of trees and tangled vines. The world around him was still. Even
the trees were asleep.
But then, out of the silence, came a frightful yowling...]]
Two nanoseconds later a death-dealing coyote had him pinned to the 
ground. Zeke was so scared he couldn't breathe. But when the coyote's
claws pierced his flesh, he somehow squeezed out the opening bars of the
only song that came to mind: ""Show me the Way to Go Home.""]]
The coyote keeled over and yowled no more. Zeke played a bit longer,
to make double-sure the wretched carnivore was unconscious. Then he
wriggled to his feet and continued homeward.]]
Bushed and bleary as he was, Zeke never figured out how he found his
way. But at last he was there. Home. Where he belonged. He wiped his
feet on the doormat, pressed the doorbell with his snout, and fainted.]]
His mother opened the door. ""Pa-a-a!"" she screamed. ""Our boy is back!
Do you hear me?""
""Zekey! Gazeek!"" his father cried. ""Welcome home!""
Zeke's father carried him to his bed, where he was covered with a blanket
of kisses. Then they all spent the day waiting to hear his harrowing
tale. (You already know it.)]]
Zeke was soon the darling of the town, more celebrated than even the
mayor. Grateful parents smothered him with hugs for serenading their
children to sleep. And patients at the Quayhogue Hospital unanimously
preferred his music to sleeping pills.]]
For his next birthday, Zeke's parents gave him a regular harmonica,
which he often played at the Grange Hall before an enraptured audience.
As for the garbage harmonica, he always kept it on his person. He
would have felt naked without it.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Inferences: Several Implications

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: Some difficult words

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Complexity: Several ideas - closely related

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Simple Plot

Figurative Language

Personification

Idioms

Metaphors

Similes

Topic

Magic

Sleep

*Family & Friends

*Music

Musical instruments

Performing

Low Frequency Words

aboard	announced	audience	bagels	baggage
bamboozled	bleary	bravo	bushed	carnivore
cetera	chitlins	chortled	churning	commenced
concerts	confusion	conked	countless	coyote's
crowed	dalmatian	dealing	debating	disinfectant
dispose	dreamland	eared	egret	enraptured
et	ezekiel	fellas	folk	fortify
gazeek	grange	grateful	harmonica	harrowing
hinkaholly	homeward	hustled	independent	indifferent
insulting	keeled	knuckles	label	lazing
licorice	lugged	misunderstanding	moseying	mushmellow
musician	naked	nanoseconds	nincompoops	obliged
opportunity	organ	passengers	patients	pausing
pierced	pippin	pippins	plastered	pleaded
pondering	preferred	prelude	presented	private
proved	quayhogue	regaling	remarkable	researching
reviling	rudeness	samaritans	schnapps	serenading
shimmied	shipshape	shoved	showering	slew
smothered	snarled	solitude	sorrow	studied
suitcases	supernatural	surcease	swiftly	tangled
thoroughly	threaded	traviata	unanimously	unconscious
unglued	untyin	upstream	villains	weird
whipped	wretched	wriggled	yanking	yelped
yipes	yowling	zeezled	zekey	zoozled