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 15 of 27
Is New York Burning?
In New York, people consume about 500 million kilowatt hours of energy per square kilometre every year. This is almost half of the total amount of solar energy (heat of the sun rays) falling on such an area in a year. So New Yorkers, in effect, live under a sun-and-a-half. In addition, paved areas, walls and the roofs of buildings absorb and re-radiate more heat than soil or plant-covered ground. Water runs off these surfaces more rapidly, allowing little cooling by evaporation....
The Language of a Cat
The poet Carl Sandburg wrote, “The fog comes in on little cat feet.” So do a large number of our words and expressions. Let’s think of the cats that run and leap and pounce and slink and purr and meow through the English language. There are a number of explanations for the phrase, “it’s raining cats and dogs”? Cats and dogs were closely associated with the rain and wind in the western mythology. Dogs were often pictured as the attendants of Odin, the storm god, and cats were believed to cause rain....
Polite Police
July 8: Very soon, a banner will appear in the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in Delhi. It will read: The Tourist Police For you, with you, Always. But, most people are scared that it might actually mean “The Tourist Police, For you, with you, after you, Always. Polite Police [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] Disappointed with the police force and its rude ways of dealing with the public, the Ministry of Tourism now wants to have its own police force, says a report in ‘The Indian Express’ newspaper....
AHA! Books: Manjula Padmanabhan
Award-winning writer, playwright, artist, cartoonist and illustrator, Manjula Padmanabhan has published 21 books for children. She lists out her 10 all-time favourite children’s books and series, for Pitara’s A-Ha list. List of Ten: It’s not possible to make a list of “Ten Favourite” children’s books, without including whole series! So that’s what I’ve done. I’ve confined myself to those books that I read in childhood, which means I can’t include the recent children’s books I’ve read — such as Harry Potter (three books, the remaining four are feverishly awaited), the Animorph series (all 31!...
The 24-hour Film!
Guess how long it takes to make a feature film, say like Star Wars or The Sixth Sense? Nothing less than three to four months! And that’s rushing it through. And if it’s a musical or action film, it will take longer as you add in rehearsal time. Hollywood makes something like 250 films a year and that’s counting foreign language films too. However, the largest film producing country in the world is India with over 700 feature films a year and in 16 Indian languages....
Latecomers Out
August 19: What happens when guests come late to school functions in the city of Surat, Gujarat? They are not invited a second time round. No prizes for guessing the identity of these guests – the city’s politicians, of course. Latecomers Out [Illustration by Sudheer Nath] Politicians who come late to functions in Surat, known as the diamond city for its thriving trade in the precious stone, are a worried lot today....
A Battle Well Fought
June 2: In the war against AIDS, they don’t come any tougher than Xolani Nkosi, better known as Nkosi Johnson since his adoption by a white family. In his short life, he had become one of South Africa’s youngest and boldest campaigners fighting for the rights of AIDS affected people to be accepted by society. At 5:40 am on June 1, he finally lost the battle. Now, there’s nothing more the doctors can do for him....
Hockey Heroines
Where: India September 12, 2007 : I must confess that I got interested in the Indian women’s hockey team after watching the film Chak De! India . But unlike many friends who kept talking about the bright actors in the film thinking they were actually discussing the game of hockey, I did some reading up on the hockey team. To tell you the truth it was as captivating, if not more, than the film. Since this is a news item, let me give you the ‘hard’ news first....
The Girl who Won the Boys Chess Title
Koneru Humpy will win many chess titles in her career. After each title she will also get many phone calls congratulating her. But there is one phone call she will never forget. It is the call she got from Viswanathan Anand, after she won the World Chess Championship title in the under-12 category, last year. The championship was held in Spain. In the year 2000, the smiling young curly-haired girl from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, created another record....
A School for Dreamers
A school for dreamers? Teachers who help you build castles in the air? But such a school does exist. Here children have their heads in the clouds, but their feet planted firmly on the ground. Well, not quite planted. The mighty leaps into the air and well-aimed kicks during the ‘kalaripayittu’ class are the envy of any acrobat. (Kalaripayittu, an ancient martial art of Kerala, is the mother of all martial arts in the world)....