Once upon a time, there was a boy named Mark. Mark loved to go to the ocean and play his flute. One day, he was playing his flute when a school of dolphins swam by. They leaped in the air every 30 seconds. Mark could almost predict when they would leap again. He watched them for a long time because he was so interested in their play. That day, he decided that he wanted to learn more about dolphins.

Mark went to the library. The next weekend, he took a boat and rowed out about as far as he had seen the dolphins before. He started playing his flute, trying to mimic the pulsed sounds he had heard on tapes of dolphin sounds. He had learned that they make two kinds of pulsed sounds. One kind is called sonar and is used to locate dolphins and objects. The other kind of sound is a burst pulse, which tells the emotional state of the dolphin. Mark was trying to mimic sonar. Soon, about 400 yards away, he saw the roll of the dolphins. The boat bounced in the waves as the dolphins came closer. They seemed to be curious about the sounds coming from the boat. Suddenly, the boat tipped sharply, and Mark fell out. Somehow, he held onto his flute. Mark was a good swimmer, but he was too far from land to swim. The only thing to do was to try to mimic the sound of a dolphin in trouble. Maybe then the dolphins would help him to land.

Kicking strongly, he kept himself above the water. He blew high burst pulse sounds. Just when he was about to go underwater, he felt a push against his leg. Again and again a dolphin pushed him. She managed to keep his face above water as she gently pushed him to shore. Mark couldn't believe what was happening. He got safely to shore, although the boat was never seen again. As he sat on the beach, still shaking from fear, he realized that he had reached his goal. He had surely learned a lot about dolphins that day!

Leslie, L. & Caldwell, J. (1995). Qualitative Reading Inventory-II. New York, NY; Addison Wesley Longman Publishers.