Text Leveling System

Tut, Tut

RDQ:	1295	Max Word/Sent	34	Total Words	3084		Diff Words	899
Lex	790	Ave Word/.Sent	9	Hi Freq occurs	2222	72%	Hi freq	369	41%
AR	4.1	Long Sentences	6.4	Low Freq occurs	188	6.1%	Low freq	133	14.8%

ONE
I opened the door to my room and saw a terrible
scene. A giant woman stood in King Tut's tomb.
An even bigger cat crouched just behind it.
"Anna!" I yelled. "What are you doing?"
Sam and Fred pushed into the room behind me.
"She's wrecking our ancient Egypt projects,"
said Fred. He tossed an extra figure out of his
diorama. "Ms. B. would kill me if she found G. I.
Joe in my 'Making of a Mummy.'"
Sam picked up another action figure. "I'm sure
she'd love Spiderman in my Book of the Dead
scroll and Barbie in Joe's 'King Tut's Tomb.'"
"That is not Barbie. It's the goddess Isis," said
Anna.
"I didn't know Isis wore high heels," I said.
"And would you please get that stupid cat away
from the tomb. She's licking the
 burial chamber." Anna took the cat and her doll and settled them ]]
both in her lap.
"Cleo is not a stupid cat and she wasn't licking
your stupid burial chamber. She was helping Isis stop
the evil grave robbers from breaking
into the Queen Pharaoh's tomb."
"You are such a pain," I said. "And that shows how much
you know about ancient Egypt. Only kings were
Pharaohs. They never had women Pharaohs."
I wiped the cat slobber off my model of King
Tut's tomb.
"Oh yes, they did," said Anna.
"Oh no, they didn't," I said, doing my most
annoying imitation of Anna's voice.
"Well, who is this then?" said Anna. She opened
one of the books on my desk and pointed to a
picture. Sam adjusted his glasses and leaned over to take ]]
a closer look. "Now that's the goddess Isis. You
can tell because she has that thing that looks like
 a chair on her head. And there's that same throne
shape in the hieroglyph next to her. That's her
cartouche signature thing."
"Pharaohs are usually depicted wearing the
white crown of Upper Egypt and/or the red
crown of Lower Egypt," said Fred in his fake
teacher voice. He flipped up the bill of his
baseball cap. "Only the most awesome Pharaohs
wore the Blue Jay crown of Toronto."
"But I saw a picture of a woman wearing the
two Pharaoh crowns," said Anna.
"I'll bet you your week's allowance you didn't,"
I said.
"I'll bet you I did," said Anna, putting Cleo
down and looking through the pile of Egypt books.
"And you have to clean the kitty litter for my
week, too," I added.
Sam drew a few more teeth on the figure of the
Devourer in the Weighing of the Heart scene in his
scroll, then stood back to admire all three projects.
"Congratulations Trio," said Sam. "Here we
have three excellent projects on ancient Egypt,
finished one whole day before they are due, and ]]
nobody even mentioned using a certain Book to
help us with our research."
Fred turned his Blue Jays cap inside out and
balanced it upside down on his head. "We must
be getting smart."
"I wouldn't go that far," said Sam.
"I'm still time-lagged from our last adventure,"
I said. "Plus, I promised I wouldn't use The Book
again until I've figured out every tip and rule
in there."
"Aha!" yelled Anna. "Here it is."
Cleo jumped on the desk and rubbed her cheek
on the book Anna held.
"I found it. A picture of a lady wearing both ]]
crowns." Anna held up a thin blue book with
twisting silver designs.
A faint green mist began to form on the
sugar-cube steps of King Tut's tomb.
"No!" screamed Fred, Sam, and I in unison.
Fred and I dove for The Book. Sam dove for the
door. We met in mid-jump and ended up in a
pile on the floor.
"Yes it is," said Anna. She scratched Cleo's head
and studied the picture in The Book. "See there's
the white crown-"
"I don't want to be a mummy," moaned Sam
in the gathering green cloud.
"-and there's the red crown."
A flower of dense green fog bloomed and
covered Book, sister, and cat.
"Here we go again," said Fred.
Then the fog swallowed us, and we were gone. ]]
TWO
Now before things get out of hand (and you
know they will as soon as we land), I'd like to
take a minute to explain a few things.
First of all-I had no idea what I was getting
into when my uncle Joe gave me The Book for my
birthday. It turns out that this is no ordinary
book. This thing is a time machine. Every time
we open it, it takes us to a different time. Which
sounds like great fun. But there is one little problem.
The only way to get back to our time is to find
The Book in the other time. And whenever we time
travel, The Book has a nasty habit of disappearing.
We've gotten in trouble looking for The Book in King Arthur's court, on Blackbeard's pirate ship, in a stone-age cave, and in places you don't
even want to know about.
So you would think by now we would have
figured out how to use The Book without losing it. ]]
Well ... we haven't. And if you've got any
bright ideas of what we should do-keep them
to yourself.
Sorry if I sound a little cranky. But this disappearing
Book thing is starting to get on my nerves.
I swore to Sam and Fred that I would figure out
The Book before it took us on any more time
travels. Then my wonderful sister had to go and
get us in the same mess again. I may just have to
ask my mom about The Book straight out. She
gave it to Uncle Joe, and I have a sneaking
feeling she knows more than she's telling.
If you've read any of the Time Warp Trio's other
adventures, you know as well as I do what's
coming next. We're bound to land in some kind
of trouble. Except this time I have the added
worry of keeping track of a little sister and her
cat, too. Great.
Wish me luck and turn the page. I'll bet you
your allowance and a week of kitty-litter cleaning
that we end up in King Tut's tomb . . . or someplace worse.]]
THREE
For all of the times we've time warped, I've
never gotten used to it. It's like dreaming you're
falling, floating in the ocean, and spinning in one
of those awful teacup rides at the carnival all at
once. You get large. You get small. You get curved.
Then you are you again.
When the Time Warp teacup ride finally
stopped, Fred, Sam, and I found ourselves in the
same heap we had been in 1996. But the dusty
stone floor and the strange light weren't anything
like my room in 1996.
Fred adjusted his Blue Jays cap and jumped to
his feet. "Check this out. Statues, paintings, hieroglyphics.
We must be back in King Tut's tomb."
"Surprise, surprise," said Sam, still sitting in the
middle of the floor. "And let me guess-The Book is 
nowhere in sight." I looked around the small stone room. A group ]]
of statues and things stood jumbled in the corner
near Fred. There was no Book, and no little sister
Anna or her cat Cleo.
"Don't panic," I said. "This time we'll make a
plan. The Book is usually nearby. So we find
Anna, find The Book, and warp back out of here
before we get in any trouble."
"Great plan, fearless leader," said Sam. "Only
I'm not moving from this spot, because I would
like to keep my hands."
Fred came over with a gold cobra crown wrapped
around his hat. "We're rich! We've finally hit
pay dirt with that freaky Book. Real treasure."
"What do you mean-you want to keep your
hands?" I asked Sam.
"You junior Egyptologists, seem to have
forgotten," lectured Sam, "that the authorities
usually punished grave robbers by chopping off
their hands. So I'm staying right here. No one
is going to call me a grave robber."
Fred went back to the statues. "Oh come on,
you chicken. They won't miss a few gold pieces."
I looked at Sam, sitting on his hands. I looked
at Fred, digging in a dead 
person's treasure. "Are you both nuts? Fred, get away from that stuff.]]
Sam, get on your feet. We are going to find
The Book, find my sister and her cat, and get out
of here before-"
A loud crash echoed in the hallway outside.
More lights flickered. An angry voice yelled.
"My hands," squeaked Sam, folding them
under his armpits.
"Yikes," said Fred, trying to yank the cobra
off his cap.
The sound of the voice grew louder.
"They're headed this way," I whispered. "Hide."
We ran in circles looking for something, anything,
to hide behind. The three of us saw the
statues in the corner and all had the same idea.
We jumped behind the statues and froze into a
pose, just as bright torchlight flooded the room.
A pudgy, bald man in a white robe and sandals
held the torch and a whippy stick that he swished
around in the air at two taller guys dragging
a big painted trunk.
"You idiots. I can't believe I ever offered you a
place in eternal life. Your mother must have been a
blind hippo and your father a three-legged donkey.
If anything is broken in there I'll-" At this the nasty little guy started slashing his]]
whip around like he was battling a whole army.
"Yes, your grace," said the one in a white skirt.
"Thank you, your grace," said the other.
"Bring the rest into the next room. And if you
break one tiny amulet or shawabti, I'll make sure
the gods keep you paddling a barge in the flaming
lakes of Duat forever. Now go!"
The two guys hustled off and left their leader
standing over the treasure. I had no idea who this
guy was, but the strange look in his eye made me
think he was up to no good. Then he started
talking to himself like evil guys in movies always ]]
do, and I knew he was up to no good.
"My plan works to perfection. As soon as the
Pharaoh's temple is completed, my temple will be
completed. These secret rooms and treasures will
give me power greater than any Pharaoh in the
next life. All will remember and revere my name the
great priest Hatsnat. ''
Fred shot me a look. If he was thinking what I
was thinking, we could have sworn the guy had
said his name was Hot Snot. I had just convinced
myself it couldn't be, when he started up again.
"Great Hatsnat. Most Awesome Hatsnat. The
Wonder of All, Hatsnat." The little bald guy paced
around the room, trying out his different names.
Fred, Sam, and I bit our lips, trying not to burst
out laughing.
He walked to the doorway and turned for
one last look at his treasure. We were almost
safe. Then he said, "The Grand, Glorious Most
Awesome Wonder of All ... Hatsnat."
That did it. Fred snorted out a laugh.
Hatsnat jumped three feet into the air.
Sam and I couldn't hold it in any longer . We fell
on the floor laughing. We had
 just barely managed to stop howling, when Hatsnat held his torch ]]
toward us. "Thieves. How dare you defile the
temple of Hatsnat."
Have you ever been someplace where you're
not supposed to laugh, but you just can't help it?
That's exactly where we were.
"Hot Snot?" I laughed.
"Cold Boogers," laughed Fred.
"Not robbers," laughed Sam.
We laughed so hard we could hardly breathe.
Hatsnat did not look amused. In fact, he looked mad enough to kill.]]
FOUR
0nee we stopped laughing, it finally sunk in
that we were in serious trouble. Hatsnat lined us
up against the wall, twitching his whip.
"Thieves. Vermin. Crocodile dung. Where do
you robbers come from in these strange garments
and sandals? Answer!"
Sam was the first to recover and jump into
quick-talking action. "Robbers? No sir. We're not
robbers. We come from ... umm ... another land.
But we are not robbers." Sam shoved his hands
deep in his pockets. "Not us. No way."
Hatsnat slashed his whip through the air. "Then
how did you get into this secret room?"
"Would you believe magic?" said Fred.
Hatsnat leaned back, suddenly looking a teeny
bit afraid. "Magic? You are followers of Isis? You
have powers beyond this life?" "Yeah, kind of," said Fred. Then he suddenly ]]
pushed me forward. "Joe here is actually the most
powerful magician in our land."
"Thanks, Fred," I said and punched him in the
arm as hard as I could.
Hatsnat tapped the end of his whip on his chin.
"Magicians, you say? Hmmm. Then conjure me
jewels, elephant tusks, a live baboon."
I couldn't believe I was on the spot again. For
a guy who's not even an official card-carrying
magician, I sure get an awful lot of work. I
wracked my brain for a good trick.
"Jewels and monkeys? That's baby stuff. I can
perform wonders you've never dreamed of," I said,
stalling for time. "But first I need a few things.
Do you have a thin blue book? About this big?
With silver designs on the front and back? It's
kind of a book of how things work in our land."
"Instructions for the afterlife?" said Hatsnat. He
took a small package wrapped in linen from the
trunk and handed it to me.
I couldn't believe we had found The Book this
easily. Finally our luck was changing.
"Great," I said. "Now stand back." I unwrapped
the linen and took out ... a scroll of drawings and hieroglyphics. Our luck was ]]
definitely changing. Changing for the worse.
Sam groaned. "That's a book for the afterlife all
right. It's a Book of the Dead. Which is exactly
what we're going to be if you don't show the nice
man some magic, Joe."
"Thank you so much for your assistance,
Magician Sam," I said. Then I saw a small scrap
of papyrus about the size of a dollar bill, and I
remembered a classic trick. "Allow me to show
you that we magicians are faster than any man,"
I said to Hatsnat. I held the papyrus piece in my
left hand, between the open thumb and finger of
my right hand.
"I drop the papyrus. I catch it between my
thumb and finger. I drop it. I catch it. Easy, yes?"
Hatsnat nodded.
"Then let's see if you are as fast as a magician. I'll drop
it. You catch it."
Hatsnat held out his thumb and forefinger. I placed ]]
the papyrus between them and asked, "Ready?"
"Of course."
I dropped the papyrus. He missed by a mile.
"I wasn't ready."
I dropped it again. He missed again.
"The light is dim."
Missed again.
"Something was in my eye."
Not even close.
"Enough!" Hatsnat sliced the air with his
whip. He was still mad, but you could tell he was
looking at us differently. I figured I'd better keep
him guessing while I had him believing us.
"Another simple challenge." I put the piece of
papyrus on the floor about two feet away from
the wall. "Stand with your heels against the wall.
Bend over and pick up the papyrus without
moving your feet."
Hatsnat frowned. "That is simple for a great
priest. Here, hold the torch."
Hatsnat placed his heels against the wall, bent
forward, and just about fell on his face. "I wasn't
truly trying." Hatsnat started again, bending
slowly forward. Sam and Fred gave me the thumbs-up sign. Hatsnat staggered.]]
"So you see we really are magicians," said Sam.
"We're not robbers."
"Yeah," said Fred. "We thought this was King
Tut's tomb. We didn't even know that it was
your secret room in the Pharaoh's temple."
Hatsnat's eyes narrowed to little slits. This did
not seem like a good thing. "Yes, you do know
this is my secret room, don't you?"
"Oh, but don't worry," said Sam. "We won't
tell anyone, really."
"Really," said Hatsnat. "No, I guess you
won't." He rubbed his bald head and gave us a
funny look. "Well, what am I thinking? The
Pharaoh would be very angry with me if I did
not welcome such great magicians with the
proper gifts. Come with me."
Hatsnat led us out the doorway and through
a maze of hallways left and right, up and down,
and back around. The walls were covered with
brightly colored carvings of gods and goddesses.
I spotted my personal favorite-Thoth, the ibis headed
god of writing.
We slipped through a gap in the stone wall
and came out behind a 
curtain into a huge room with statues, jars, crowns, and a million pieces ]]
sparkling with gold and jewels. Suddenly Hatsnat
was our best friend.
"Take whatever you desire," he said. "The
Pharoah's treasure is your treasure."
Fred picked up a miniature gold mummy coffin.
Hatsnat helped Sam with a falcon-shaped neck
piece bigger than him.
I couldn't decide between a gold statue of Osiris
and a great-looking dagger.
"Nice work with the paper tricks," whispered
Fred. "You definitely faked him out."
"A little knowledge of reflexes and the human
body's center of gravity," I said modestly. "No one
can do those things, but he doesn't know that."
I tried on a few scarab rings.
Sam folded a crook and flail across his jeweled
chest. "King Sam."
"But how come he speaks English?" said Fred.
"Or do we understand Egyptian?"
"There's always some kind of instant translation
thing that happens in all of the time travel
books I've ever read," said Sam. "Because if they
didn't have that, none of the characters would
understand what each other was saying." "Oh," said Fred.]]
I settled on the dagger and an ankh symbol
necklace. "Yeah, I'll have to look that up in
The Book when we find it."
"Do us all a favor," said Sam, adjusting his new
Pharaoh beard. "Don't."
We were so busy talking and comparing treasures
that none of us noticed Hatsnat edging
toward an outer doorway. Out of the corner of my
eye I saw him suddenly push over a huge statue. I
thought he'd gone crazy. The giant stone nose
smashed off the statue's face with a deafening crash ]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: No support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Chapters

Features

Integral Setting - Historical

First Person

Topic

Time

Problem Solving

*Fictional Ideas/Charac

Low Frequency Words

adjusted	adjusting	adventures	allowance	amulet
amused	ankh	assistance	authorities	boogers
burial	carnival	cartouche	challenge	classic
congratulations	conjure	convinced	crouched	curtain
curved	deafening	defile	depicted	devourer
diorama	disappearing	duat	echoed	edging
egyptian	egyptologists	eternal	excellent	falcon
flail	flaming	forefinger	garments	gathering
glorious	goddess	goddesses	hatsnat	hatsnat's
hieroglyph	hieroglyphics	hustled	ibis	idiots
imitation	instant	instructions	isis	jeweled
jewels	jumbled	junior	knowledge	lagged
lectured	legged	linen	magician	magicians
mentioned	miniature	model	modestly	necklace
nee	nowhere	official	ordinary	ourselves
paced	paddling	panic	papyrus	perfection
perform	personal	pharaoh	pharaoh's	pharaohs
pharoah's	pockets	pose	priest	projects
pudgy	recover	reflexes	research	revere
sandals	scarab	scroll	shawabti	shoved
signature	slashing	slobber	sparkling	staggered
stalling	statue	statue's	statues	studied
swallowed	swished	sworn	symbol	thieves
thoth	tomb	torch	torchlight	translation
trio	trio's	truly	twitching	unison
vermin	warp	warped	weighing	whippy
wonders	wracked	wrecking	yank