Text Leveling System

Love Flute

RDQ:	945	Max Word/Sent	34	Total Words	987		Diff Words	358
Lex	730	Ave Word/.Sent	12	Hi Freq occurs	658	66.7%	Hi freq	149	41.6%
AR	3.5	Long Sentences	15	Low Freq occurs	35	3.5%	Low freq	30	8.4%

In the old days, melodies of flutes could be heard on	 summer evenings. They were love songs carried by the breezes into the tipi circle from the surrounding pine-covered ridges and grassy hills, where young men played on love flutes to the girls they loved. Each girl, at home under the watchful eyes of her parents, knew the tunes of the boy who loved her. Even though convention did not allow them to be together alone after dark, they were joined in spirit with the music of the flutes.
his is the story of a shy young man who was given the very first love flute, long ago, by the birds and animals.
The young man was so shy that it was easier for him to face enemy warriors in battle than to speak to the girl he loved. Everyone knew he was brave.
He always led in the dangerous buffalo hunt, and yet he could never find the courage to tell the beautiful girl that he loved her. He was very unhappy with himself.
Many other young men liked the girl. They stood outside her tipi all day long, waiting to wrap her in their blankets and to whisper to her. The young man stood shyly at a distance, looking at the ground. He was afraid to speak; he knew he could never tell her all that he wanted. Each day she looked more beautiful.
He thought about her all the time. If he slept he was still thinking about her.
He waited by the river where she fetched water. There were always other young men waiting.
He wished he was like them: they whistled to her, or threw pebbles into the water as she filled her water-carrier, and they hoped to wrap her in their blankets as she passed. She smiled, and went on her way. They seemed to laugh and speak so easily with her.
"She smiles at us! She likes us!" they laughed among themselves.
The young man felt they spoke the truth. He thought she did not even notice him.
The young man was sad. He did not care about anything any longer.
Life without the beautiful girl was not worthwhile. One morning he left the camp. It did not matter where he went, or what happened to him.
He shot an arrow without thought or aim into the air.
And the arrow stayed up in the air! It was pointing and leading him on, at a pace at which he could walk.
All day he followed.
In the evening the arrow fell, and there he found a stream of clear water.
The next morning he again shot an arrow into the air. Again it flew in front of him, and at evening fell beside a stream. For four days it was exactly the same. He knew he was guided by the unseen powers, and that something wonderful was happening.
On the evening of the fourth day he lay down to sleep at the edge of an aspen forest. The scent of yellow leaves was good.
He was tired and sleepy. Who can say whether he was asleep, or still awake? There was a rustle of leaves, a click of hooves, and a voice whispering: "Friend, you tell him," and another answering: "No, friend, you tell him."
Two tall Elk Men with branching antlers, and painted black and yellow all over, stood above him.
"We are going to help you," one of the Elk Men said. "We give you this: it is a flute. Listen!" He blew notes....
Their sound was so beautiful that everything everywhere listened. All through the aspen forest the leaves trembled with gladness. The Elk Man said, "This flute is made of cedar wood, because cedars like to grow where the winds always blow. Woodpecker lives there; he made these five finger holes. See, he shaped his head at the end."
The other Elk Man said, "All the birds and animals have helped to make this flute for you. We have put our voices inside it. When you blow it, our harmony will be in your melodies. With the music of this flute you will speak straight to the heart of the girl you love. Your life together will be long, and you will have children."
The young man felt very afraid of the Elk Men: their eyes looked into him and saw all his thoughts.
He had noticed that each of them carried a hoop which had a mirror at the center. Suddenly they flashed the mirrors into his eyes, and he was blinded.
When he could see again the Elk Men had gone. Two bull elks were running away into the trees.
The next morning the young man found the flute which the Elk Men had given him, lying on picked sage leaves.
Everything around him fe new and wonderful as he set off home again.
He blew on the flute, and the cranes joined in happy song.
He walked for four days, and all the while he listened closely to the songs of the birds and animals. Sometimes he blew into the flute, imitating their tunes and weaving them together until he had made his own melodies. Every bird and animal loved the songs he played.
On the evening of the fourth day, when he came close to the camp, he began to play his flute.
He approached closer, and gradually closer, and the spirit of the breeze carried his wonderful songs straight to the girl he loved.
Every woman in the camp thrilled to the sound, and yet only the girl knew that the songs were speaking to her.
The girl left her tipi. She loved the shy young man who spoke to her with the music of his flute.
He told her more beautifully than words could ever say:
I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: Some difficult words

Language: Colorful, figurative

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Several Implications

Complexity: Several unrelated ideas

Concept: Fanciful

Mature concepts: With common experiences or clear fantasy

Features

Simple problem/solution

Personification

Topic

Traditions

Love

*Music

Musical instruments

Native Americans

Low Frequency Words

approached	aspen	carrier	cedar	cedars
convention	courage	elks	fetched	gladness
gradually	harmony	hooves	imitating	melodies
mirrors	pace	ridges	rustle	sage
scent	surrounding	tipi	unseen	warriors
watchful	weaving	whisper	whistled	woodpecker