Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources

Fair or Fowell

Fair or Fowell
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grade 9
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.21

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    apropos, auburn, countenance, domicile, epigram, facade, fair-haired, frontin, inextricable, light-headed, maid-Melody, malady, meticulous, on-camera, proffer, repository
     content words:    Next Singing Sensation, Judge Samson Fowell, Tori Lamont, Jefferson Jones, African American, Samson Fowell, Ben Franklin

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Fair or Fowell
By Brenda B. Covert 		  
1     In an unguarded moment, one of the contestants on America's Next Singing Sensation compared Judge Samson Fowell to something extremely unpleasant. When an assistant relayed the report to Samson, his countenance grew murderous.
 
2     "She'll pay for that," he growled. Samson was an expert when it came to extracting revenge.
 
3     Of the contestants, most had a rudimentary knowledge of music. Only two had a higher caliber of skill borne of extensive vocal training. Naturally, they were expected to amass a large number of votes each week, and they usually succeeded in doing so. Their names were Tori Lamont and Jefferson Jones, and it was Tori who had made the peevish remark about Samson.
 
4     Word got back to Tori that Samson knew of her insulting comments about him. She told Jefferson about it. He asked what she thought might happen.
 
5     "I don't know," she said, nervously twirling her long, auburn curls. "You don't envision him suing me for slander or libel, do you? Since the public does the voting, he can't possibly vote me off the show." As if the thought had just now struck her, she gazed wide-eyed at Jefferson. "Do you think he would try to sabotage my next performance?"
 
6     Jefferson gave a hearty, if somewhat forced, chuckle. "I don't think circumstances exist under which Fowell would stoop to such behavior. You haven't said anything that he wouldn't say himself if the situation called for it." He shrugged. "If I may be permitted to speak in the African American vernacular, ‘He frontin' if he think he gon be act a fool and not get no drama back, fo sho!'" he said with a nod that caused his dreadlocks to swing rhythmically.
 
7     "Are you talking about Samson?" fair-haired Melody asked, rounding the corner. "He treats me like a peon. I don't know why I'm still in the competition," she said candidly. "After his on-camera insults, I'm surprised to realize that I know how to read and write! He makes me feel like I'm not fit for anything but scrubbing toilets or toiling in the fields."
 
8     "Behold," Jefferson said grandly with a wide sweeping motion of his arm, "the next toiling toilet maid–Melody Swift!"
 
9     "Very funny," she replied, slapping Jefferson good-naturedly on the arm.

Paragraphs 10 to 24:
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