Text Leveling System

Esio Trot

RDQ:	960	Max Word/Sent	45	Total Words	3210		Diff Words	810
Lex	730	Ave Word/.Sent	11	Hi Freq occurs	2138	66.6%	Hi freq	348	43%
AR	3.5	Long Sentences	18.1	Low Freq occurs	177	5.5%	Low freq	103	12.7%

Mr Hoppy lived in a small flat high up in a
 tall concrete building. He lived alone. He had
always been a lonely man and now that he was
retired from work he was more lonely than ever.
There were two loves in Mr Hoppy's life. One
was the flowers he grew on his balcony. They
grew in pots and tubs and baskets, and in
summer the little balcony became a riot of
colour.
Mr Hoppy's second love was a secret he kept
entirely to himself.]]
The balcony immediately below Mr Hoppy's
jutted out a good bit further from the building
than his own, so Mr Hoppy always had a fine
view of what was going on down there. This
balcony belonged to an attractive middle-aged
lady called Mrs Silver. Mrs Silver was a widow
who also lived alone. And although she didn't
 know it, it was she who was the object of Mr
Hoppy's secret love. He had loved her from his
balcony for many years, but he was a very shy
man and he had never been able to bring
himself to give her even the smallest hint of his
love.
Every morning, Mr Hoppy and Mrs Silver
 exchanged polite conversation, the one looking
down from above, the other looking up, but that
was as far as it ever went. The distance between
their balconies might not have been more than a
few yards, but to Mr Hoppy it seemed like a
million miles. He longed to invite Mrs Silver up
for a cup of tea and a biscuit, but every time he
was about to form the words on his lips, his
courage failed him. As I said, he was a very very
shy man.]]
Oh, if only, he kept telling himself, if only he
could do something tremendous like saving her
life or rescuing her from a gang of armed thugs,
if only he could perform some great feat that
would make him a hero in her eyes. If only .]]
The trouble with Mrs Silver was that she
gave all her love to somebody else, and that
somebody was a small tortoise called Alfie.
Every day, when Mr Hoppy looked over his
balcony and saw Mrs Silver whispering endearments to Alfie and stroking his shell, he felt
absurdly jealous. He wouldn't even have
minded becoming a tortoise himself if it meant
Mrs Silver stroking his shell each morning and
whispering endearments to him.]]
Alfie had been with Mrs Silver for years and
he lived on her balcony summer and winter.
Planks had been placed around the sides of the
balcony so that Alfie could walk about without
toppling over the edge, and in one corner there
was a little house into which Alfie would crawl
every night to keep warm.
When the colder weather came along in
November, Mrs Silver would fill Alfie's house]]
with dry hay, and the tortoise would crawl in
there and bury himself deep under the hay and
go to sleep for months on end without food or
water. This is called hibernating.
In early spring, when Alfie felt the warmer
weather through his shell, he would wake up
and crawl very slowly out of his house onto the
balcony. And Mrs Silver would clap her hands
with joy and cry out, "Welcome back, my
darling one! Oh, how I have missed you!"
It was at times like these that Mr Hoppy
wished more than ever that he could change
 places with Alfie and become a tortoise.]]
Now we come to a certain bright
morning in May when something
happened that changed and indeed
electrified Mr Hoppy's life. He was
leaning over his balcony rail watching
Mrs Silver serving Alfie his breakfast.
"Here's the heart of the lettuce for you,
my lovely," she was saying. "And here's a
slice of fresh tomato and a piece of crispy
celery."
Good morning, Mrs Silver," Mr Hoppy
said. "Alfie's looking well this morning."
"Isn't he gorgeous!" Mrs Silver said, looking
up and beaming at him.]]
Absolutely gorgeous,  Mr  Hoppy said, not
meaning it. And now, as he looked down at Mrs
Silver's smiling face gazing up into his own, he
thought for the thousandth time how pretty she
was, how sweet and gentle and full of kindness,
and his heart ached with love.
I do so wish he would grow a little faster,"
Mrs Silver was saying. "Every spring , when he
wakes up from his winter sleep, I weigh him on
the kitchen scales. And do you know that in all
the eleven years I've had him he's not gained
more than three ounces! That's almost nothing!
"What does he weigh now?" Mr Hoppy asked
her.
"Just thirteen ounces," Mrs Silver answered.
"About as much as a grapefruit."
"Yes, well, tortoises are very slow growers, 
Mr Hoppy said solemnly. "But they can live for a
hundred years.
"I know that, Mrs Silver said. "But I do so
wish he would grow just a little bit bigger. He's
such a tiny wee fellow."
"He seems just fine as he is," Mr Hoppy said.
"No, he's not just fine!" Mrs Silver cried. "Try]]
to think how miserable it must make him feel to
be so titchy! Everyone wants to grow up."
"You really would love him to grow bigger,
wouldn't you?" Mr Hoppy said, and even as he
said it his mind suddenly went click and an
amazing idea came rushing into his head.
"Of course I would!" Mrs Silver cried. "I'd
give anything to make it happen! Why, I've seen
pictures of giant tortoises that are so huge
people can ride on their backs! If Alfie were to
see those he'd turn green with envy!"]]
Mr Hoppy's mind was spinning like a flywheel.
Here, surely, was his big chance! Grab it,
he told himself. Grab it quick!
"Mrs Silver," he said. "I do actually happen to
know how to make tortoises grow faster, if that's
really what you want ."
"You do?" she cried. "Oh, please tell me! Am I
feeding him the wrong things?"
"I worked in North Africa once," Mr Hoppy
said. "That's where all these tortoises in
England come from, and a bedouin tribesman
told me the secret."
Tell me!" cried Mrs Silver. "I beg you to tell
me, Mr Hoppy! I'll be your slave for life."
When he heard the words your slave for life, a
little shiver of excitement swept through Mr
Hoppy. Wait there," he said. "I'll have to go in
and write something down for you."]]
In a couple of minu tes Mr Hoppy was back on
the balcony with a sheet of paper in his hand .
I'm going to lower it to you on a bit of string,"
he said, or it might blow away. Here it comes."
Mrs Silver caught the paper and held it up in
front of her. This is what she read:
ESIO TROT, ESIO TROT,
TEG REGGIB REGGIB!
EMOC NO, ESIO TROT,
WORG PU, FFUP PU, TOO HS PU!
GNIRPS PU, WOLB PU, LLEWS PU!
EGROG! ELZZUG! FFUTS! PLUG!
TUP NO TAF, ESIO TROT, TUP NO TAF!
TEG NO, TEG NO! ELBBOG DOOF!
"What does it mean?" she asked. "I s it another
language?"]]
"It's tortoise language," Mr Hoppy said.
"Tortoises are very backward creatures. Therefore
they can only understand words that are
written backwards. That's obvious, isn't it?"
"I suppose so," Mrs Silver said, bewildered.
Esio trot is simply tortoise spelled backwards,"
Mr Hoppy said. "Look at it."
"So it is," Mrs Silver said.
"The other words are spelled backwards,
too," Mr Hoppy said. "If you turn them round
into human language, they simply say:
TORTOISE, TORTOISE,
GET BIGGER BIGGER!
COME ON, TORTOISE,
GROW UP, PUFF UP, SHOOT UP!
SPRING UP, BLOW UP, SWELL UP!
GORGE! GUZZLE! STUFF! GULP!
PUT ON FAT, TORTOISE, PUT ON FAT!
GET ON, GET ON! GOBBLE FOOD!"
Mrs Silver examined the magic words on the
paper more closely. "I guess you're right," she]]
said. "How clever. But there's an awful lot of
poos in it. Are they something special?"
"Poo is a very strong word in any language,"
Mr Hoppy said, "especially with tortoises. Now
what you have to do, Mrs Silver, is hold Alfie up
to your face and whisper these words to him
three times a day, morning, noon and night. Let
me hear you practice them."
Very slowly and stumbling a little over the
strange words, Mrs Silver read the whole
message out loud in tortoise language.
"Not bad," Mr Hoppy said. "But try to get a
little more expression into it when you say it to
Alfie. If you do it properly I'll bet you anything
you like that in a few months time he'll be twice
as big as he is now."
I'll try it," Mrs Silver said. "I'll try anything.
Of course I will .. But I can't believe it'll work."
"You wait and see," Mr Hoppy said, smiling
at her.]]
Back.in his flat, Mr Hoppy was simply quivering
all over with excitement. Your slave for life,
he kept repeating to him self. What bliss!
But there was a lot of work to be done before
that happened.]]
The only furniture in Mr Hoppy's small
living room was a table and two chairs. These
he moved into his bedroom. Then he went out
and bought a sheet of thick canvas and spread it
over the entire living room floor to protect his
carpet.
Next, he got out the telephone book and
wrote down the address of every pet shop in the
city. There were fourteen of them altogether.]]
It took him two days to visit each pet shop
and choose his tortoises. He wanted a great
many, at least one hundred, perhaps more. And
he had to choose them very carefully.
To you and me there is not much difference
between one tortoise and another. They differ
only in their size and in the colour of their shells.
Alfie had a darkish shell, so. Mr Hoppy chose
only the darker-shelled tortoises for his great
collection.
Size, of course, was everything. Mr Hoppy
chose all sorts of different sizes, some weighing
only slightly more than Alfie's thirteen ounces,
others a great deal more, but he didn't want any.
that weighed less.
"Feed them cabbage leaves," the pet shop
owners told him. "That's all they'll need. And a
bowl of water."]]
When he had finished, Mr Hoppy, in his
enthusiasm, had bought no less than one
hundred and forty tortoises and he carried them
home in baskets, ten or fifteen at a time. He had
to make a lot of trips and he was quite exhausted
at the end of it all, but it was worth it. Boy, was it
worth it! And what an amazing sight his living
room was when they were all in there together!
The floor was swarming with tortoises of]]
different sizes, some walking slowly about and
exploring, some munching cabbage leaves,
others drinking water from a big shallow dish.
They made just the faintest rustling sound as
 they moved over the canvas sheet, but that was
all. Mr Hoppy had to pick his way carefully on
his toes between this moving sea of brown
shells whenever he walked across the room. But
enough of that. He must get on with the job.]]
Before he retired Mr Hoppy had been a
mechanic in a bus-garage. And now he went
back to his old place of work and asked his mates
if he might use his old bench for an hour or two.
What he had to do now was to make
something that would reach down from his own
balcony to Mrs Silver's balcony and pick up a
tortoise. This was not difficult for a mechanic
like Mr Hoppy.
First he made two metal claws or fingers, and
these he attached to the end of a long metal tube.
He ran two stiff wires down inside the tube and
connected them to the metal claws in such a way
that when you pulled the wires, the claws
closed, and when you pushed them, the claws
opened. The wires were joined to a handle at the
other end of the tube. It was all very simple.
Mr Hoppy was ready to begin.]]
Mrs Silver had a part-time job. She worked
from noon until five o'clock every weekday
 afternoon in a shop that sold newspapers and
 sweets. That made things a lot easier for Mr
Hoppy.
So on that first exciting afternoon, after he
had made sure that Mrs Silver had gone to
 work, Mr Hoppy went out onto his balcony
 armed with his long metal pole. He called this
 his tortoise-catcher. He leaned over the balcony
 railings and lowered the pole down onto Mrs
 Silver's balcony below. Alfie was basking in the
 pale sunlight over to one side.
"Hello Alfie," Mr Hoppy said . "You are about
to go for a little ride."
He wiggled the tortoise-catcher till it was right
above Alfie. He pushed the hand-lever so that
 the claws opened wide. Then he lowered the two
 claws neatly over Alfie's shell and pulled the
 lever. The claw s closed tightly over the shell like
two fingers of a hand. He hauled Alfie up on to
his own balcony. It was easy.]]
Mr Hoppy weighed Alfie on his own kitchen
scales just to make sure that Mrs Silver's figure
of thirteen ounces was correct. It was.
Now, holding Alfie in one hand, he picked his
way carefully through his huge collection of
tortoises to find one that first of all had the same
colour shell as Alfie's and secondly weighed
exactly two ounces more.
Two ounces is not much. It is less than a
smallish hen's egg weighs. But you see, the
important thing in Mr Hoppy's plan was to
make sure that the new tortoise was bigger than
 Alfie but only a tiny bit bigger. The difference
had to be so small that Mrs Silver wouldn't
notice it.]]
From his vast collection, it was not difficult
for Mr Hoppy to find just the tortoise he
wanted. He wanted one that weighed fifteen
ounces exactly on his kitchen scales, no more
and no less. When he had got it, he put it on the
kitchen table beside Alfie, and even he could
hardly tell that one was bigger than the other.
But it was bigger. It was bigger by two ounces.
This was Tortoise Number 2.]]
Mr Hoppy took Tortoise Number 2 out onto
the balcony and gripped it in the claws of his
tortoise-catcher. Then he lowered it onto Mrs
Silver's balcony, right beside a nice fresh lettuce
leaf.
Tortoise Number 2 had never eaten tender
juicy lettuce leaves before. It had only had thick
old cabbage leaves. It loved the lettuce and
started chomping away at it with great gusto.
There followed a rather nervous two hours
 wait for Mrs Silver to return from work.
Would she see any difference between the
new tortoise and Alfie? It was going to be a
tense moment.]]
Out onto her balcony swept Mrs Silver.
"Alfie, my darling!" she cried out. "Mummy's
back! Have you missed me?"
Mr Hoppy, peering over his railing, but well
hidden between two huge potted plants, held
his breath.
The new tortoise was still chomping away at
the lettuce.]]
"My my, Alfie, you do seem hungry today,"
Mrs Silver was saying. "It must be Mr Hoppy's
magic words I've been whispering to you."
Mr Hoppy watched as Mrs Silver picked the
tortoise up and stroked his shell. Then she
 fished Mr Hoppy's piece of paper out of her
 pocket, and holding the tortoise very close to
 her face, she whispered, reading from the
paper:
ESIO TROT, ESIO TROT,
TEG REGGIB REGGIB!
EMOC NO, ESIO TROT,
WORG PU, FFUP PU, TOO HS PU!
GNIRPS PU, WOLB PU, LLEWS PU!
EGROG!ELZZUG!FFUTS!PLUG!
TUP NO TAF, ESIO TROT, TUP NO TAF!
TEG NO, TEG NO! ELBBOG DOOF!"]]
Mr Hoppy popped his head out of the foliage
and called out,  Good evening, Mrs Silver. How
is Alfie tonight?"
"Oh, he's lovely," Mrs Silver said, looking up
and beaming. And he's developing such an
appetite! I've never seen him eat like this before!
It must be the magic words."
"You never know," Mr Hoppy said darkly.
"You never know."]]
Mr Hoppy waited seven whole days before he
made his next move.
On the afternoon of the seventh day, when
Mrs Silver was at work, he lifted Tortoise
Number 2 from the balcony below and brought
it into his living room. Number 2 had weighed
exactly fifteen ounces. He must now find one that
weighed exactly seventeen ounces, two ounces
more.
From his enormous collection, he easily found
 a seventeen-ounce tortoise and once again he
made sure the shells matched in colour. Then he
lowered Tortoise Number 3 onto Mrs Silver's
balcony.
As you will have guessed by now, Mr Hoppy's
secret was a very simple one. If a creature grows
slowly enough- I mean very very slowly indeed
- then you'll never notice that it has grown at all,
especially if you see it every day.
It's the same with children. They are actually
growing taller every week, but their mothers
never notice it until they grow out of their
clothes.
Slowly does it, Mr Hoppy told himself. Don't
hurry it.]]So this is how things went over the next eight 
weeks.
In the beginning
ALFIE weight 13 ounces
TORTOISE NO. 2 weight 15 ounces
End of second week
TORTOISE NO. 3 weight 17 ounces.]]
End of third week
Tortoise NO . Weight 19 ounces.]]
End of fourth week
TORTOISE NO. 5 weight 21 ounces
End of fifth week
TORTOISE NO. 6 weight 23 ounces.]]
End of sixth week
Tortoise no 7 weight 25 ounces
End of seventh week
Tortoise no 8 weight 27 ounce.
Alfie's weight was thirteen ounces. Tortoise.
Number 8 was twenty-seven ounces. Very
slowly, over seven weeks, Mrs Silver's pet had
more than doubled in size and the good lady
hadn't noticed a thing.]]
Even to Mr Hoppy, peering down over his
railing, Tortoise Number 8 looked pretty big. It
was amazing that Mrs Silver had hardly noticed
anything at all during the great operation. Only
once had she looked up and said, "You know,
Mr Hoppy, I do believe he's getting a bit bigger.
What do you think?"
"I can't see a lot of difference myself," Mr
Hoppy had answered casually.]]
But now perhaps it was time to call a halt, and
that evening Mr Hoppy was just about to go out
and suggest to Mrs Silver that she ought to
weigh Alfie when a startled cry from the
balcony below brought him outside fast.
"Look!" Mrs Silver was shouting. "Alfie's too
big to get through the door of his little house! He
must have grown enormously!"
"Weigh him," Mr Hoppy ordered. "Take him
in and weigh him quick.
Mrs Silver did just that, and in half a minute
she was back holding the tortoise in both hands
and waving it above her head and shouting,
"Guess what, Mr Hoppy! Guess what! He
weighs twenty-seven ounces! He's twice as big
as he was before! Oh you darling!" she cried,
stroking the tortoise. "Oh, you great big
wonderful boy! Just look what clever Mr Hoppy
has done for you!"]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Features

Complex Problem/Solution

Topic

Turtles

Tricking

Pets

Low Frequency Words

absolutely	absurdly	ached	balconies	balcony
basking	biscuit	bury	casually	colour
concrete	conversation	courage	darkish	differ
doubled	egrog	elbbog	electrified	elzzug
emoc	endearments	enormously	enthusiasm	esio
exhausted	exploring	fellow	ffup	ffuts
foliage	further	gazing	gnirps	gorge
gorgeous	gripped	growers	gulp	guzzle
halt	hibernating	hoppy	immediately	jealous
jutted	kindness	language	lever	llews
longed	lowered	mechanic	minded	minu
miserable	munching	object	obvious	operation
ought	ounce	ounces	peering	perform
planks	potted	properly	quivering	railing
railings	reggib	rescuing	retired	riot
rustling	secondly	seventh	shallow	shelled
silver's	solemnly	startled	suggest	surely
swept	taf	teg	titchy	toppling
tortoise	tortoises	tremendous	tribesman	weekday
weighed	weighing	whisper	widow	wolb
worg	worth