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Dinosaurs
Digging into the Past, Part 2



Digging into the Past, Part 2
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.03

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    radius, excavation, shortly, sketch, favor, soil, during, archeological, current, staff, trench, site, arrival, being, test, mall
     content words:    Dr Porter, Maybe Dad


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Digging into the Past, Part 2
By Mary Lynn Bushong
  

1     Alexa was thoughtful as she walked into her tent. She put her suitcase on an unfolded camp stool and unrolled her sleeping bag on the camp cot. A Coleman lantern hung from a hook in the center of the ceiling. She pulled out her current sketch book and flipped through the drawings.
 
2     "Knock, knock," said Ben outside her door. "Can I come in?"
 
3     "Sure," said Alexa, and she sat down on a folding chair with her book.
 
4     "Hey, this is pretty nice. You have the place to yourself. You know, I'm starting to think that we could have some fun here. I mean, how many of our friends would ever get to be part of a real archeological dig?"
 
5     "You are kidding, right?" asked Alexa. "It's not like we can even go to the mall or a movie, even if we could find one in a three hundred mile radius."
 
6     "Is that the only thing on your mind, Lex?" asked Ben. "Get a life. There is more to it than shopping, drawing, or hanging out. I thought you were smarter than that."
 
7     Late that afternoon the other family arrived. Alexa got a good look at them during orientation. It was a couple with four kids. Two were geeky-looking boys, both older than she, and their two giggling sisters who looked much younger.
 
8     Alexa was prepared to be bored as they were taken to the dig site, but she found herself interested anyway.
 
9     "Welcome, everyone," said Dr Porter. "I hope you have settled in. This is our test trench," he said pointing to the long, narrow excavation.

Paragraphs 10 to 23:
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