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Grade 7 Reading Comprehensions

Difficult Decision, Part One

Difficult Decision, Part One
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grade 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.37

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    expedite, furball, hartley, insanity, mercurial, microcosm, ophthalmoscope, otoscope, predecessor, unrealized, vaughan, inert, subside, zoology, larynx, rat-like
     content words:    Carey Connor, Old Miss Spencer, Miss Spencer, When Carey

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Difficult Decision, Part One
By Brenda B. Covert 		  
1     I stood in the veterinarian's office, wearing a white lab coat. On the table before me lay an inert opossum. Its large, rat-like mouth gaped; its rows of sharp teeth glistened under the lamp.
 
2     "Go ahead and administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," a voice urged. "Your predecessor wouldn't have stopped to think about it. What's stopping you?"
 
3     "This is dangerous!" I said. "Can't I do something else?"
 
4     The answer was negative. I shrugged, took a deep breath, and bent over the unconscious furball. Suddenly its eyes shot open, and its teeth snapped at my face! I let out a shriek that seemed to echo around and around in my head!
 
5     That nightmare was so vivid that it took awhile for my terror to subside. I work in a vet's office before and after school, and I plan to study zoology in college. I love animals! Why, then, do I keep having strange dreams about animal attacks?
 
6     I mentioned my dream to Dr. Hartley's assistant, Carey Connor, while we made the morning rounds, cleaning cages and feeding the cats and dogs.
 
7     "Hmmmm," he said thoughtfully as he placed fresh water in the beagle's cage. "In your dream you were coerced into doing something that your instincts told you was risky. Rather than assert yourself, you meekly obeyed the voice." He closed the cage and turned to face me. "Often dreams represent a microcosm related to reality. Taylor, is there something troubling you at school or at home? Are you having to cope with any difficult issues or decisions?"
 
8     Carey's surfer dude appearance belies his nimble mind. My mind boggled as I realized that my nightmare might have absolutely nothing to do with an unrealized fear of animals. How had Carey known that?

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