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Texto elaborado por los alumnos: Sebastián Cuesta & Adrian Guerra* 1

Grupo: 2º Bachillerato D; CURSO 2009/10

Tickle your taste buds


First, take 30 to 40 live scorpions. Stir-fry in hot oil for 20 seconds. Add pork, garlic, ginger, salt and pepper. Simmer
for 40 minutes ... Not quite Delia, but everyday fare in parts of China, and one of the culinary curiosities collected by
photographer Peter Menzel and his partner, writer and documentary film-maker, Faith D'Aluisio, during a nine-year
global study of entomophagy, the eating of insects.
"This is something that as a kid I was really freaked out about," says Peter, talking from their home in Napa Valley,
California. "I remember reading about Hell's Angels eating live grasshoppers at a motorcycle rally and thinking it
was just inconceivable that people could eat something so lowly and disgusting. But then I came across this piece in
the Wall Street Journal about the Food Insect Newsletter, and it had some recipes and talked about the strange
people who subscribed to the newsletter, and I just became fascinated with it. I made a point of looking for insect-
eating whenever I went abroad on assignment."
His first, and most traumatic, encounter with entomophagy was at a festival in celebration of the “Jumil”, or stink
bug, in a village south-west of Mexico City. "There were all these people on top of this mountain hunting jumiles. I
walked up to this group of women who were mashing them up and putting them on tostadas - but some of the
women were eating them live, and I knew I couldn't refuse one if I was going to be `photographically accepted' here.
It was disgusting. First it tried to crawl out of my mouth and claw across my tongue and escape, so I had to crunch
down on it to stop it and it exploded. It had this nauseous taste of iodine and I had these bug guts in my mouth, but
there were all these people watching so I had to grin and bear it." After that it got easier, and he gradually became a
connoisseur. His favourite dish was roast Theraphosa leblondi tarantula, prepared by Yanomami Indians near the
Orinoco river in Venezuela: "It's the world's largest spider, it's bigger than your outstretched hand, but it's like a crab
to eat. You roast it, and it has this white meat inside. And there's actually very little difference from a crab, they're
both from the same family, except one of them made it out of the sea." Faith is still far from sanguine about insect-
eating. "He dragged me kicking and screaming into this one," she says. "I'm the reluctant bug-eater here. A carrot,
you pull it out of the ground, it doesn't do anything, it lays there, it waits for you to pick it up, but a creepy-crawly ... "
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/eating-insects-tickle-your-taste-buds-1070582.html

I COMPREHENSION (4 points)
ANSWER QUESTIONS 1-3 ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION GIVEN IN THE TEXT. USE YOUR OWN
WORDS. (1 point per answer)
1 How does Faith feel about entomophagy?
2 When did Peter become interested about insect-eating? Why?
3 Is all bugs meet very different from average food?
ARE THESE STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE PRECISE WORDS OR
PHRASES FROM THE TEXT, OR USE YOUR OWN WORDS. (0.5 points per answer)
4 Peter’s decision to start their study on entomophagy has its origin in a festival in celebration of the
Jumil.
5 After eating a bug in Mexico, Peter became an expert and got to like some of them.

II USE OF ENGLISH (3 points)


6 “Boil slowly” (0.25 points)
7 “Crawl” (Verb; Line 15) (0.25 points)
8 “Assignment” (0.25 points)
9 “Insect with long hind legs, with (0.25 points)
which gives great leaps”
10 “It was just inconceivable that people could (0.5 points)
eat something so lowly and disgusting”
11 “I’d have to crunch on the jumil if……” (0.5 points)
12 “It had some recipes and talked about the strange (0.5 points)
people who subscribed to the newsletter, and I just became fascinated with it” Peter said.
13 (0.5 points)

Spain / the / Cup / we / If / to / will / center / wins / go / celebrate / World / the

III PRODUCTION (3 points)


14 WRITE A COMPOSITION OF APPROXIMATELY 120 WORDS. CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING
OPTIONS, AND FOCUS STRICTLY ON IT. SPECIFY YOUR OPTION.
A) What sort of reasons could you suggest to explain the fact that western citizens in
general do not accept insect-eating?
B) Advantages and disadvantages of introducing insect-eating in our diet.

*Supervisado por José Antonio Romero Tena, profesor del Departamento de Inglés. IES Miguel Servet. Sevilla

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