Text Leveling System

The Greedy Triangle

RDQ:	901	Max Word/Sent	33	Total Words	954		Diff Words	286
Lex	720	Ave Word/.Sent	10	Hi Freq occurs	603	63.2%	Hi freq	109	38.1%
AR	3.5	Long Sentences	6.8	Low Freq occurs	64	6.7%	Low freq	32	11.2%

Once there was a triangle that was - 
as most triangles are - always busy. The triangle spent its time holding up roofs supporting bridges making music in a symphony orchestra catching the wind for sailboats being slices of pie and halves of sandwiches and much much more. The triangle's favorite thing however was to slip into place when people put their hands on their hips. "That way I always here the latest news" it said "which I can tell my friends." The triangle's friends liked hearing the news. One day the triangle began to feel dissatisfied. "I'm tired of doing the same old things" it grumbled. "there must be more to life." So the triangle went to see the local shapeshifter. "How may I help you?" the shapeshifter asked the triangle. "I thing if I had one more side and one more angle" said the triangle"my life would be more interesting." "That's easy to do" said the shapeshifter. Poof! The shapeshifter turned the triangle into a quadrilateral. Life changed in a wonderful way. The quadrilateral was happy with all the new things it could do. The quadrilateral could be a baseball diamond or first second or third base. It could take a position on a checkerboard or a chessboard. It could be a television screen a computer screen or a movie screen. It could frame windows or frame pictures and much much more. The quadrilateral's favorite thing however was to be the pages of a book. "I learn so many interesting stories" it said "which I can tell my friends." The quadrilateral's friends liked hearing the stories. But one day the quadrilateral began to feel dissatisfied. "I'm tired of doing the same old things" it grumbled. "There must be more to life." So the quadrilateral went back to the shapeshifter. "How may I help you now?" the shapeshifter asked the quadrilateral. "I think if I had just one more side and one more angle" said the quadrilateral "my life would be more interesting." "That's easy to do" said the shapeshifter. Poof! The shapeshifter turned the quadrilateral into a pentagon. Life changed in a wonderful way. The pentagon was happy with all the new things it could do. On a baseball diamond the pentagon could be home plate. It could be a section on a soccer ball or appear inside whenever someone drew a five-pointed star. The pentagon's favorite thing however was to be the headquarters of the United States military near Washington D. C. "I hear all the top secrets that way" it said. "It's too bad I can't tell them to my friends." The pentagon's friends couldn't help feeling left out. After a while time seemed to pass slowly for the pentagon and it became dissatisfied. "I'm tired of doing the same old things" it grumbled. "There must be more to life." So the pentagon went back to the shapeshifter. "So you're here again" the shapeshifter said to the pentagon. "Now what would you like?" "I think if I had just one more side and one more angle" said the pentagon "my life would be more interesting." "That's easy to do" said the shapeshifter. Poof! The shapeshifter turned the pentagon into a hexagon. Life changed again in a wonderful way. The hexagon was happy with all the new things it could do. The hexagon fit in as floor tiles in houses and patios and fancy crackers at parties and picnics. It worked as the socket of certain bolts and the prongs of certain wrenches. The hexagon's favorite thing however was to be a cell in a beehive. "I love watching the bees as they buzz in and out" it said. The hexagon spent so much time in the beehive it was too busy to talk to its friends. The friends missed the hexagon and couldn't help feeling ignored. Again and again the shape became restless dissatisfied and unhappy with its life. Again and again it returned to the shapeshifter for more sides and more angles - The shapeshifter agreed to turn it into one shape after another. A heptagon an octagon a nonagon a decagon and on and on. Finally the shape had many many sides and many many angles. Its sides were so small that it had trouble keeping its balance. Its friends couldn't tell which side it was on and began to avoid the shape. One day when the shape was going down a hill it began to roll. Faster and faster it went screeching around corners crashing into fences and trees colliding with bicycles and terrifying walkers. At last the shape came to a stop. It felt tired and dizzy lonely and sad. "Enough" thought the shape. "I don't know which side is up. I can't keep my balance. My friends don't want me around." The shape could no longer remember why it had been so unhappy as a triangle. Very carefully it made its way back to the shapeshifter. "Aren't you happy yet?" the shapeshifter asked. "I want to be a triangle again" said the shape. "I'm not surprised" said the shapeshifter. Poof! The shapeshifter turned the shape back into a triangle. The triangle was delighted to have its old shape back again and kept itself very busy. Once again it held up roofs supported bridges made music in the symphony orchestra caught the wind for sailboats became slices of pie and halves of sandwiches and much much more. Still the triangle's favorite thing was to slip into place when people put their hands on their hips. "That way I always hear the latest news" it said "which I can tell my friends." Its friends liked hearing the news and were glad the triangle was back in shape again.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: Some difficult words

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Some implications

Complexity: Several ideas - closely related

Concept: Fanciful

Prior Knowledge: Basic understanding.

Features

Difficult names

Topic

Shapes

Feelings/Emotions

Appearances

Friendship

*Math

Numbers

Low Frequency Words

angle	angles	chessboard	colliding	decagon
diamond	dissatisfied	halves	headquarters	heptagon
hexagon	hexagon's	ignored	military	nonagon
octagon	orchestra	patios	pentagon	pentagon's
prongs	quadrilateral	quadrilateral's	restless	section
shapeshifter	socket	symphony	terrifying	triangle
triangles	wrenches