We use the ‘Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level Formula’ to present scores as per US grade level. See all the grade levels here. Following articles, stories and features are appropriate for people at reading level of Grade 7 (Age 12-13 years). More information about Flesch–Kincaid readability tests can be found here.
267 items in this section. Displaying page 10 of 27
Pickpocket
December 9: Small children on streets running around, darting in and out of traffic seemingly without a care in the world. They are usually homeless and all alone. Even at such a young age they have a profession, where they earn at least Rs 20 a day – pickpocketing. Not a profession any of you would like to practise, would you? But not having much else to fall back upon, some poor young children in Calcutta were lured into stealing....
Where did Coffee Originate?
The aroma of coffee beans was one of the earliest smells to intoxicate me as a child – such was its flamboyant richness. That, and the lush sight of frothy white milk becoming creamier as it mixed with the nut-brown coffee decoction, served in steel tumblers, was perfect happiness. It is a memory shared by many Indians living in the southern states, the main coffee growing as well as drinking regions in the country. The pleasure that the beverage gave was so intense that it never occurred to me that coffee could have originated anywhere but in India....
Shirt That is a Mobile Phone
Clothes that can make phone calls, play music, dial your pal’s number, keep you snug during cold weather, operate your computer… Shirt That is a Mobile Phone [Illustrations by Sudheer Nath] This is not fantasy. A British company, called Electrotextiles, has created a dazzling range of clothes — clothes that have a mind of their own! Scientists, working for the company, have invented a fabric that can be blended with flexible electronic materials to create intelligent clothing....
The Writer
The Writer [Illustration by Anup Singh] December 9: Stanley “Tookie” Williams is an American writer of children’s books. His books are cautionary tales, warning children to stay away from drugs, guns and gangs so common to certain sections of poor America. Williams has won wide acclaim and two literature prizes. But then Williams is no ordinary children’s writer. He is a four-time murderer on death row (waiting to be executed) in California’s San Quentin prison....
Holi in Fiji
March 19: Before it was Holi in India, phagua, as Holi is called by the Indo-Fijians, was already being celebrated. The Fiji Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, are six-and-a-half hours ahead of Indian time and the Indo-Fijians were already singing chautal, an oral tradition of celebration. For the community, memories of India go as far back as 120 years, when the first batch of Indians in colonial India, were taken to Fiji, also a British colony, as labour....
Teenage Girl Lone Survivor from Yemeni Air Crash
Where: Moroni, Comoros July 2, 2009 : Weeks after an Air France airliner crashed into the Pacific Ocean, a Yemeni jetliner went down into the Indian Ocean near Comoros, where it was scheduled to land. All passengers were killed, except one teenage girl. The passengers on the ill-fated plane Airbus that crashed into the Indian Ocean were flying the last leg of a journey from Paris in France to Comoros, with a stop in Yemen to change planes....
The Candy
It was a hot Tuesday afternoon in the month of October. The geography lesson was interesting but Sharmila was getting restless waiting for the class to get over. The ice candy man had come some time ago and his day’s quota would soon get over. He visited the school every Tuesday and Thursday to sell his delicious candies that the children waited for eagerly, every week. It was always a struggle for the teachers to hold on to the students’ attention during the last period of school on those two days....
Easter's Here
Go out into the market on Easter and you cannot miss the Easter egg on the shop counter – filled with sweets and chocolates, it is irresistible. Several people also paint eggs or emboss chocolate eggs with sugar flowers to gift to friends and relatives. But what is Easter? Easter Sunday falls on the Sunday after Good Friday and on this day Easter eggs are available in the market – that is what most of us know....
A Day in the Life of a Magician
Excerpts from ‘A Day in the Life of a Magician’. First published by Vigyan Prasar, India Years ago I gave up hanging up a stocking on Christmas Eve. One reason is that I have no stockings to hang, because I almost always wear trousers, and even when I wear shorts I wear socks with them so as to make my calves brown. And I don’t think Father Christmas would find room in a sock for all the things I want....
The Concorde
The sleekest and the fastest jet aircraft in the world. The Concorde. Sounds like an ad? Wait till you hear how much it costs to travel in it. A trip on this aircraft could cost you $9,000 – at least 25 per cent more than the regular first class travel fare. For a long time, the Concorde was considered the safest aircraft – the only jet aircraft in the history of aviation which has never had a serious accident....