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The 1980's

The Real Fat Albert Kid

The Real Fat Albert Kid
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.7

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    comedian, earning, performers, teaching, attain, album, popular, preschoolers, finding, society, scholarship, successful, needless, dealing, based, correspondence
     content words:    William Henry Cosby, Bill Cosby, Cosby Show, Temple University, United States, Bill Cosby Is, Very Funny Fellow, Robert Culp, African American, Sidney Poitier

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The Real Fat Albert Kid
By Jane Runyon 		  
1     One of the most popular men of the 1980's was William Henry Cosby, Jr. Most people know him as Bill Cosby. His very popular television show, The Cosby Show, ran from 1984 to 1992. It depicted a well-to-do family. There was a mother, a father, and five children. The father was a successful doctor. The mother was a successful lawyer. The children were all well-behaved, although they did have their problems at times. What made this television family different from other successful television families is that they were black. Most other television shows of the time portrayed blacks as struggling in the day's society.
 
2     Bill Cosby was born on July 12, 1937. He grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bill was smart enough, but he did more clowning around than he did studying. He liked sports. He was popular with other students in his school. He took jobs before and after school. He also took part in football, basketball, baseball, and track. Jobs, sports, and making other people laugh made it hard for him to succeed in school. He failed the tenth grade because of all these activities. Instead of repeating a grade, he decided it was time for him to go to work. He got a job as an apprentice in a shoe repair shop. One day he asked himself if this was what he wanted to do the rest of his life. The answer was "no."
 
3     Bill decided to join the Navy and let them prepare him for something better in life. It was during his four years in the Navy that he made an important discovery. He found that he could never find the success he wanted in life without getting a good education. He took correspondence courses through the mail to finish his high school credits. When he left the Navy, he accepted a track scholarship to Temple University in Philadelphia.

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