Text Leveling System

Ancient Egypt

RDQ:	356	Max Word/Sent	17	Total Words	480		Diff Words	199
Lex	580	Ave Word/.Sent	10	Hi Freq occurs	265	55.2%	Hi freq	68	34.2%
AR	2.3	Long Sentences	0	Low Freq occurs	35	7.3%	Low freq	18	9%

Hundreds of years ago, a group of people lived in the African country of Egypt. They lived on the banks of the Nile River. They were farmers and hunters. They used the river for boat travel. They were ruled by a king called a pharaoh.
The ancient Egyptians believed that after someone died, he or she went to live in another world. They believed that a person's next life would be like their present life. They thought the dead person would need the same tools and objects in their next life. So people were buried with many of the things that they owned. 
Ancient Egyptians believed in a sun god. They believed that the king was related to this god. When the king died, he was given a very fancy burial. Many riches were buried with him. Queens were also given fancy burials.
After a king died, his body was preserved so that it would not rot. People believed that this would keep his spirit alive. The preserved body was called a mummy.
The king was buried inside a huge stone structure called a pyramid. The pyramid was shaped to look like the sun's rays shining on Earth. People believed that the king would go to heaven on the rays of the sun. 
Pyramids took many years to build. When a king was still alive, people began building his pyramid. The stones used to make the pyramid were huge. It took hard work to get the stones out of the ground. It took harder work to move the stones to where the pyramid would be built. Some stones were moved on boats. Other stones were moved over land using big sleds.
Inside the pyramid was a tomb. This was a special room where the king's body was placed. Many objects were put in the tomb. There were statues, paintings, and many gold things.
Many hidden tunnels and rooms were built inside a pyramid. They were built to trick anyone who tried to steal things from the tomb. Giant stones were put in front of the doorway of the real tomb. They were used to keep out thieves. Still, almost every king's tomb has been robbed over the years. But the pyramids still stand. 
The Great Pyramid at Giza is a famous pyramid. It was built for King Khufu. It has more than 2 million blocks of stone. Other pyramids near it were built for the king's relatives. A statue called the Sphinx guards all of the pyramids. The Sphinx has the face of a king and the body of a lion.
Studying the ancient Egyptians teaches us a lot about life long ago. We can learn about the tools these people used and clothes they wore. We can learn about the food they ate and the gods they worshipped. By studying ancient Egyptians, we know that they had a great culture.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Simple graphics supplementary to text comprehension

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Formal

Inferences: Some implications

Complexity: Several ideas - closely related

Concepts: Concrete/Simple Social

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Topic

*History

Low Frequency Words

burial	burials	culture	egyptians	khufu
objects	pharaoh	preserved	pyramid	pyramids
related	relatives	sphinx	statue	statues
structure	thieves	tomb