ThE' p urpo s e c f th is studv 'N;1S tÂ·; det e rmin e both th,',rnc orn!=1rche nsi o rl Bb i,lity of s rad8 10 Ftur:l~3nts and the r eadarnbi l ity l e ve l of t heir t2xtbo 2 ks usin~ the cloz a pr o c~d ur ernand th a Frv ~ ranh r OGoectivoly .rnTh e r eadab il ity l e ve l o f th e taxtbofJks was d e t e r min edrnby ta king three -c n r~- hun d r8 d-v.lOrd sarnplo D8ssages from Bachrnof th e f o ur grado t e n t2x,t brJDks, ( r: ;':~ lish For ~Â·JevJ Eth ir:!p iarnF'1r Gr ad e Ten tlistQJ;:)L.Fo r Gr Clde TGn." G2o graohy Fo r Grild 8rnTen and Bblegy Fr r Gr ade Ten) sd ect8d for th e study, Thernfin di nf,s show that the a pprox:ma te: grndc l e ve l s u f th ernhi.s t r;rv. ~eograohy. biology and En ghsh texto o ks Are 15, 11,rn3 ond 8 respoct ive l y. Thus . with its l(' ng words ( a n av c: r ag ernof l7 '~ sy llebles per F lO Hnrdsl and s5n t e nc e s ( a n avera,;..:: ofrn2J.O W l rCS p2r s :mt8nc e ), th e hi story text bonk has b e.:;nrnf o und out t o be the most d i fÂ£jcult . The pe rc e n ta~8 cloz&rntest me a n scores of 18. ~, f o r hi s t a r :i. 19 . 7 fo r p;ec;;r3ph y,rn23.4 for bI o l ogy a nd 26 .3 fe r English co nfirm th 6 findin gsrno f the Fry g r a ph.rnIn o rd~ r t o determ in e their c umpre h e nsion l e vel, 12 cloz arntosts (t hre3 from each of the above tex t books) we r ernadministered to 90 r r ade ten st ude nts ra nd om ly selected fromrnthre'8 "government hi" h schoo ls (Yakdit 3.2 , 11e nalik II 3 nd h i g; h E' rrn12 ) in Addis Abab~. Then the s tud Gnts were c l as sifi ed intornfrustr a t i o n. instructio nAl or indope ndent l e ve ls on t he bas i srnof t hei r cloze resul ts . Th8 findings show th a t t he oercentarern _~rnof th e s ampl e popul ation who are a t the frust r ati on l ovolrnof compre he ns ion is 97.B f or hist c r y, 96 . 7 f or ge ocraphy ,rn95. 6 f o r bi o l ogy and 94 .4 f or ~n g li s h ~ It a pp oars tha t th e s ernstud onts do not und erstand t heir textboo ks even with the helprnof th eir t e a c hers. This may be f or two r ea sons :rn1) As has been comfirmed by earlier findingsrn(read Mendida, 1988), the comr r ehension abilityrna f our s t ud e nts is extremely l ow.rn2) Sinc e th e Fry graph and the c lazo procedure usernnative s peaker crit eri a , a na wnuld not expectrns e c ond lan f. Ua fe l ea rner s t o r ead and underst a ndrnlike the natives.rnBa s ed on the fin d in gs, it wa s re c omme nd ed th a trn1) l ong words sh ould be r ep l ao ed by short wordsrn2 ) thir hi sto r y t oxtboo k be writt en in shortrnse nt e nc e s ,rn3) t ho read a bility of textbo oks be d e termin ed beforernth ey are mad e availabl e f or cl a ssroom usern4 ) r eading should be taught a s a se pa r ate l essen