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Mammals

Opossum Surprise

Opossum Surprise
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   3.1

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    half-grown, marsupial, opossum, huge, mouthful, environment, quick, cubes, interesting, poisonous, backyard, nocturnal, bury, sight, aside, fresh
     content words:    North America

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Opossum Surprise
By Mary Lynn Bushong 		  
1     "Grandpa! Grandpa! Come quick!" shouted Tony. "There's a huge rat in the woodpile!"
 
2     Grandpa got up out of his chair on the back porch and laid the ax he'd been sharpening aside. He sauntered across the yard and came to a stop next to his young grandson.
 
3     Tony pointed to a small gray animal that had backed itself into a corner. It bared its mouthful of sharp pointed teeth and hissed warningly at the two people.
 
4     Grandpa smiled at Tony's mistake. Tony was fresh from the city where rats were a common enough sight, but here in the country, they were not so visible.
 
5     "That's no rat," said Grandpa. "That's just a half-grown opossum [uh-POS-sum]."
 
6     "Half-grown?" asked Tony. "You mean that thing will get bigger?"
 
7     Grandpa nodded "That little one was probably born this past spring. He has evidently adopted the woodpile as his home for the time being."
 
8     "Shouldn't he be off hunting for his food?" asked Tony. "He's not sick, is he?"
 
9     Grandpa shook his head. "That looks like a fine, healthy, little ‘possum. His kind are nocturnal. That means they are active at night. They sleep during the day, and right now we are giving this youngster nightmares. Come on up to the house. It's getting a mite warm out here, and I could use a tall glass of sweet tea."

Paragraphs 10 to 24:
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