Text Leveling System

The Lorax

RDQ:	1209	Max Word/Sent	36	Total Words	1864		Diff Words	651
Lex	780	Ave Word/.Sent	8	Hi Freq occurs	1314	70.5%	Hi freq	273	41.9%
AR	4.0	Long Sentences	8	Low Freq occurs	133	7.1%	Low freq	92	14.1%

At the far end of town where the Grickle grass grows and wind smells slow and sour when it blows and no birds ever sing excepting old crows is the Street of Lifted Lorax.]]
And deep in the grickle grass, some people say, if you look deep enough you can still see, today, where The Lorax once stood just as long as it could before somebody lifted The Lorax away.]]
What was The Lorax? And why was it there? And why was it lifted and taken somewhere from the far end of the town where the grickle grass grows? The old once ler still lives here. Ask him. He knows.]]
You won't see the once ler . Don't knock on his door. He stays in his lerkim on top of his store. He looks in his lerkim, cold under the roof, where he makes his own clothes out of miff muffered moof. And on special dank midnights in August, he peeks out of the shutters and sometimes he speaks and tells how The Lorax was lifted away. He'll tell you perhaps if you're willing to pay.]]
On the end of a rope he lets down a tin pail and you have to toss in fifteen cents and the nail and the shell of a great great great grandfather snail.]]
Then he pulls up the pail, makes a most wonderful count to see if you've paid him the proper amount.]]
Then he hides what you paid him away in his snuvv, his secret strange hole in his gruvvulous glove. Then he grunts, i will call you by whisper ma phone, for the secrets I tell are for your ears alone.]]
Slupp! Down slupps the whisper ma phone to your ear and the old once ler’s whispers are not very clear, through a snergelly hose, and he sounds as if he had smallish bees up his nose. Now I'll tell you, he says, with his teeth sounding Gray, how The Lorax got lifted and taken away. It all started way back such a long long time back.]]
Way back in the days when the grass was still green and the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean, and the song of the swomee Swans rang out in space. One morning, I came to this glorious place. And I first saw the trees. The truffula trees. The bright colored Tufts of the truffula trees. Mile after mile in the fresh morning breeze.]]
And under the trees, I saw brown bar ba loots frisking about in their bar ba loot suits as they played in the shade and ate truffula fruits.]]
From the rippulous pond came the comfortable sound of the humming fish humming while splashing around.]]
But those trees. Those trees. Those truffula trees. All my life I've been searching for trees such as these. The touch of their Tufts was much softer than silk. And they had the sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk.]]
I felt a great leaping of joy in my heart. I knew just what I'd do. I unloaded my cart.]]
In no time at all, I had a small shop. Then I chopped down a truffula tree with one chop. End with great skillful skill and with great speedy speed, I took the soft tuft. And I knitted a thneed.]]
The instant I'd finished I heard a ga zump. I looked. I saw something pop out of the stump of the tree I'd chopped down. It was sort of a man. Describe him? That's hard. I don't know if I can.]]
He was shortish. And Oldish. And brownish. And mossy. And he spoke with the voice that was sharpish and bossy.]]
Mister. He said with a sawdusty sneeze, I am The Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. And I'm asking you, Sir, at the top of my lungs. He was very upset as he shouted and puffed. What's that thing you've made out of my truffula tuft.]]
Look, lorax, I said. There's no cause for alarm. I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm. I'm being quite useful. This thing is a thneed. A Thneed’s a find something that all people need. It's a shirt. it's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat. But it has other uses. Yes, far beyond that. You can use it for carpets. For pillows. For sheets. Or curtains. Or cover for bicycle Seats. The Lorax said, Sir. You are crazy with greed. There is no one on earth who would buy that fool Thneed.]]
But the very next minute I proved he was wrong. For, just at that minute, a chap came along, and he thought that the thneed i had knitted was great. He happily bought it for three ninety-eight. I laughed at The Lorax, you poor stupid guy. You can never tell what some people will buy.]]
I repeat, cried the lorax, I speak for the trees.]]
I'm busy, I told him. Shut up, if you please.
I rushed across the room, and in no time at all, built a radio phone. I put in a quick call. I called all my brothers and uncles and aunts and I said, listen here. Here's a wonderful chance for the whole once ler family to get mighty rich. Get over here fast. Take the road to north nitch. Turn left at weehawken. Sharp right at South stitch.]]
And, in no time at all, in the factory I built, the whole once ler family was working full tilt. We were all knitting thneeds just as busy as bees, to the sound of the chopping of truffula trees.]]
Then. Ohh. Baby. Ohh. How my business did grow period now, chopping one tree at a time was too slow.]]
So I quickly invented my super axe hacker which whacked of four truffula trees in one smacker. We were making thneeds four times as fast as before. And that lorax? He didn't show up anymore.]]
But the next week he knocked on my new office door. He snapped, I'm The Lorax who speaks for the trees which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please. But I'm also in charge of the brown Bar ba loots who played in the shade in their bar ba loot suits And happily lived, eating truffula fruits. Now thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground, there's not enough truffle of fruit to go round. And my poor bar BA loots are all getting the crummies because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies.]
The loved living here. But I can't let them stay. They'll have no find food. And I hope that they may. Good luck, boys. He cried. And he sent them away.]]
I, the once ler, felt sad as I watched them go. But business is business. And business must grow regardless of crummies and tummies, you know.]]
I meant no harm. I most truly did not. But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got. I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads. I biggered my wagons. I biggered the loads of the thneeds I shipped out. I was shipping them 4th to the South. To the east period to the West period to the north. I went right on biggering selling more thneeds. And I biggered my money, which everyone needs.]]
Then again he came back. I was fixing some pipes when that old nuisance lorax came back with more gripes. I am The Lorax, he coughed and he whiffed. He sneezed and he sniffled. He snarggled. He sniffed. Once ler he cried with a cruffulous croak. Once ler you're making such smogulous smoke. My poor swomee Swans. Why, they can't sing a note. No one can sing who has smog in his throat.]]
And so said The Lorax, please pardon my cough they cannot live here. So I'm sending them off.]]
Where will they go? I don't hopefully know. They may have to fly for a month or a year to escape from the smog you've smogged up around here.]]
What's more, snapped The Lorax. His dander was up. Let me say a few words about gluppity glup. Your machinery chugs on, day and night without stop making gluppity glup. Also Schloppity schlopp. And what do you do with this leftover goo? I'll show you. You dirty old once ler man, you.]]
You're glupping the pond where the humming fish hummed. No more can they hum, for their gills are all gummed. So I'm sending them off. Ohh, their future is dreary. They'll walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn't so smeary.]]
And then I got mad. I got terribly mad. I yelled at The Lorax, now listen here, dad. All you do is yap yap and say, bad. Bad. bad. bad. Well I have my rights, Sir, and I'm telling you I intend to go on doing just what I do. And for your information, you lorax, I'm figgering and biggering and biggering and biggering and biggering, turning more truffula trees into thneeds which everyone, everyone, everyone needs.]]
And at that very moment, we heard a loud whack. From outside in the fields came as sickening smack of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall. The very last truffula tree of them all.]]
No more trees. No more thneeds. No more work to be done. So, in no time, my uncles and aunts, everyone, all waved me goodbye. They jumped into my cars and drove away under this smoke smuggered stars.]]
Now all that was left Neath the bad smelling sky was my big empty factory and lorax and I.]]
The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance. Just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance. And he lifted himself by the seat of the pants. And I'll never forget the grim look on his face when he  heisted himself and took leave of this place, Through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace.]]
And all that The Lorax left here in this mess was a small pile of rocks, with one word unless. Whatever that means, well, I just couldn't guess.]]
That was long, long ago. But each day since that day I've sat here and worried and worried away. Through the years, while my buildings have fallen apart, I worried about it with all of my heart.]]
But now, says the once ler, now that you're here, the word of The Lorax seems perfectly clear. Unless Someone Like You cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.]]
So. Catch. Calls the once ler. He let something fall. It's a truffles seed. It's the last one of all. You're in charge of the last of the truffula seeds. And Tripoli trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then The Lorax and all of his friends may come back.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Little support

Dialog: Two speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Dialog: Unlabeled Speaker

Vocabulary: Some difficult words

Language: Many descriptive words

Sentences: Some Long/Complex

Text structure: Story/Poem

Inferences: Some implications

Author's purpose: Obvious

Features

Author Bias

Rhyming

Unusual use of vocabulary

Topic

Trees

Environment

Buying/Selling

Saving

*Economics

*Global Issues

Low Frequency Words

biggered	biggering	chap	cough	cruffulous
crummies	curtains	dander	dank	dreary
excepting	figgering	frisking	future	glance
glorious	glup	glupping	gluppity	grickle
gripes	grunts	gruvvulous	gummed	hacker
hacking	heisted	instant	intend	knitted
knitting	leftover	lerkim	loots	lorax
lungs	machinery	midnights	miff	moof
muffered	neath	nitch	nuisance	ohh
oldish	pardon	proved	rippulous	sawdusty
schloppity	sharpish	shipping	shortish	shutters
sickening	slupp	slupps	smacker	smeary
smogged	smogulous	smuggered	snarggled	snergelly
sniffled	snuvv	sounding	stitch	suits
swans	swomee	terribly	thneed	thneed’s
thneeds	tongues	tripoli	truffle	truffles
truffula	truly	tuft	tufts	unloaded
weary	weehawken	whiffed	whisper	whispers
woefully	zump