1.1 Reading and comprehension

Thailand: Water bugs

Water bugs are about the size of an average woman’s finger. They are caught at night by being lured towards a blue fluorescent light. The bugs have the consistency of biltong and are served with tomato or deep-fried in batter. They’re very tough on the outside but the insides are gooey and have a sharp taste.

Do you understand?

1. Use your dictionary to find the proper meanings to these words:
2. tourist:
3. ingredients:
4. treat:
5. delicious:
6. See if you can use these words correctly in sentences of your own. Try your sentences out on your partner!

Underline the correct answer:

• A tarantula is a:

Baby chicken

Hairy spider

Crispy sparrow

• People eat caterpillars in:

Botswana

Mexico

China

( 2 )

1. Find another word in the passage meaning the same as:
2. container:
3. eating nois

( 2 )

1. Is the following statement true or false? Give a reason for your answer.

Scorpions are eaten live

(1)

Answer the following questions.

• How are tarantulas prepared?

( 1)

• Complete the sentence: Diners in restaurants frequently order the shiny black water beetle because ____ ( 2 )
• Find the words in the passage which describe how the tarantulas taste:

and

( 2 )

• Where would you go to eat an insect that has the “consistency of crayfish”?

( 1 )

• Give a word from the passage to describe what the insides of the water beetle looks like.

( 1 )

• What happens when the scorpions are put into the rice wine?

( 2 )

• Which of the following three insects would you eat? Give a reason why.

tarantula:

water bug:

grasshopper:

( 1 )

TOTAL: 15

[LO 3.1.2; 3.1.3; 3.1.5; 3.9.1; 3.1.1]

A, b, c . . . order

Aiding Reading

How would you go about arranging words in alphabetical order, in an organised fashion?

Exercise 1

Arrange the following words in alphabetical order, according to …

Exercise 2

Arrange the following in alphabetical order:

1. untruth ; untrue ; untuned ; untouched ; untidy
2. zombie ; zip ; zest ; zoom ; zoology ; zone
3. songwriter ; songbird ; songster ; songbook ; songsmith
4. milestone ; mildew ; mileage ; mild ; mile ; milepost

[LO 6.1.4]

The wide-mouthed frog

Retold by Linda Rode, published by Tafelberg (and retold again!)

Hearing frogs sing their nightly chorus reminds me of long lazy summer evenings on the veranda at home, sipping steaming coffee or ice-cold lemonade and contemplating the day. It reminds me of the stories my dad would tell us as the moon rose higher in the sky and we got sleepier and sleepier – the steady rise and fall of the froggy melody, accompanying us to dreamland.

One of the stories he told was of how Grandpa Wide-mouth once made his wide mouth v-e-r-y, very small!

Once upon a time, a very long time ago a family of wide-mouthed frogs lived next to a little stream on a farm. They were a contented family and very happy where they lived, except for one frog who wanted to go and explore the world. “Quaa…..k,” he croaked chirpily and popped out of the reeds and up to the farm.

Plop! Plop! Plop! In the farmyard he spotted a strange speckled creature, covered in brownish feathers and pecking on the ground.