Text Leveling System

Hunches in Bunches

RDQ:	599	Max Word/Sent	29	Total Words	718		Diff Words	280
Lex	660	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	489	68.1%	Hi freq	114	40.7%
AR	2.9	Long Sentences	6.2	Low Freq occurs	34	4.7%	Low freq	29	10.4%

Do you ever sit and fidget when you don't know what to do?
Everybody gets the fidgets. Even me and even you.
And today was quite an awful day for me and my poor pup.
My trouble was I had a mind but I couldn't make it up.
It's awfully awfully awful when you can't make up your mind.
Do you want to kick a football? Or sit there on your behind?
Do you want to go out skating?
Fly a kite? Or climb a tree?
Do you want to eat a pizza?
Take a bath? Or watch TV?
Oh, you get so many hunches that you don't know ever quite
if the right hunch is a wrong hunch. Then the wrong hunch might be right.
There I was, inside the house, so fuddled up I could shout, when I got a hunch, a happy hunch, that I shouldn't be in but out.
But before I could follow that happy hunch, a voice snapped, don't you dare.
And a real tough hunch informed me, you're not going anywhere. There is homework to be done, Bub. Sit your pants down on that chair. And so I did. I sat me down.
But as soon as I got sat, a better hunch came and he yanked off the homework hunch's hat.
The better hunch said, we'll head downtown. We'll pick up your good friend James and together we'll trot  to some real cool spot and we'll play a few video games.
So, of course, that's what I started to do, but a sour hunch came to spoil it. Your bicycles rusting up. He yapped. Get yourself out back and oil it.
By now my mind was so mixed up I really didn't know if I wanted to go to the barbershop or to Boise, Idaho.
Then a very odd hunch upset me when he asked me to loud and clear, do you think it might be helpful if you went to the bathroom, dear?
Before I could even answer him, a new voice interrupted. That mind of yours, I heard him say, is frightfully ga-fluppted. Your mind is murky mooshy. Will you make it up? Or won't you?
If you won't, you are a wonter. Do you understand? Or don't you? If you don't, you are a donter.
You're a canter if you can't. I would really like to help you. But you're hopeless. So I shan't.
Then as spookish hunch  suggested I go four ways all at once. But I didn't fall for that one. I am not that dumb a dunce.
I knew where I would end up if I tried a thing like that. Most likely on some dead end road in West Gee Hossa flat.
I was much too smart for that four-way hunch. But the next thing that I knew, I was following a nowhere hunch, a really dumb thing to do.
Everybody sometimes does it.
Even me. And even you.
I followed him in circles till we wore the rug right through.
And then I heard in up hunch laugh, you are a stupid schlupp.
The way to go is not around. The way to go is up.
That seem to make a lot of sense. I even took my chair. I just knew I'd make my mind up if it had some high fresh air.
Then things got really out of hand. Wild punches in big bunches were scrapping all around me, throwing crunchy hunchy punches.
And some super hunch was yelling, make your mind up. Get it done. Only you can make your mind up. You're the one and only one.
One of me could never do it. And quite suddenly I knew to get a job like that done would take more of me like two.
And maybe even more of me. Like three of me. Or four of me.
It took an awful lot of Me. It took a lot of yelling. It took a lot of shoving and hot bargaining and selling.
We all talked the hunches over, up and down and through and through. We argued and we barg-ued.
And I finally followed a munch hunch. The best hunch of the bunch. I followed him into the kitchen and had six hot dogs for lunch.

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Colorful, figurative

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Story/Poem

Features

Symbolism

Personification

First Person

Rhyming

Unusual use of vocabulary

Topic

Attitudes

Behaviors

*Feelings, Behaviors

Low Frequency Words

barg	bargaining	donter	dunce	fidget
fidgets	fluppted	frightfully	fuddled	hunch
hunch's	hunches	hunchy	idaho	informed
interrupted	likely	mooshy	murky	nowhere
schlupp	scrapping	shan't	shoving	spookish
ued	wonter	yanked	yapped