E n g L i s h jenni Currie Santamaria

Match the words to their definitions.
____1.
acorn 
a. eat hungrily
____2.
devour 
b. a covering to keep something or 
someone warm
____3.
laboring 
c. a small nut that is the fruit of the oak 
tree
____4.
pine needles 
d. working
____5.
insulation 
e. thin soup
____6.
broth 
f. the thin needlelike leaves of a pine tree
C.
Reading strategy
Quickly scan the following paragraphs for names and numbers. Then answer 
the questions.
1.
How does Mr. Posner feel? ___________________
2.
What was the temperature at night? ___________________
Setting Out into the Arizona Wilderness with only a Knife
The group, ravenous with hunger, began the laborious process of shelling 
acorns, which were dropped into a rusty can we had found. Then we boiled up 
an acorn-and-wild-onion broth and devoured it ravenously. But we were all still 
hungry. Despite laboring for much of the day collecting onions and acorns we 
still couldn’t ill our bellies.

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16
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Better Reading English
“I’m so hungry I could eat a squirrel,” Mr. Posner said morosely. Mr. Nestor 
explained that in an emergency situation hunting could burn up more calories, 
especially when there was a chance of not actually catching anything.
The long night stretched out ahead of us. The temperature dropped to 36 
degrees. The soaring darkness of the woods enclosed as the needling cold 
stabbed into our clothing. We lay on our beds of prickly pine needles, sticking 
some into our clothes for extra insulation. We fed the ire to stay warm. The 
smoke from the ire pit billowed into our eyes, turning them bloodshot and sooty. 
We either roasted in the shelter or froze when we fell asleep and the ire died.
A gray dawn woke us early. Despite lack of sleep and a gnawing hunger with 
little food for 24 hours, there was a sense of pride we had survived the night.
Source: “Setting Out into the Arizona Wilderness with only a Knife,” Jonathan 
Green, 
New York Times
, November 10, 2006, http://travel.nytimes.com
II. COMPREHENSION CHECK
Mark the sentences T (True) or F (False).
_____ 1.
They ate acorn and wild onion soup.
_____ 2.
It didn’t take long to collect the onions and acorns.
_____ 3.
They were full after they ate the broth.
_____ 4.
Mr. Posner was very hungry.
_____ 5.
Mr. Nestor said that they shouldn’t hunt because they would burn 
more calories.
_____ 6.
They slept on pine needles.
_____ 7.
They used pine needles to help keep them warm.
_____ 8.
The ire was very smoky.
_____ 9.
They were still warm when the ire went out.
_____ 10.
In the morning they were proud of themselves.
III. VOCABULARY BUILDING
A.
Adjectives
This article contains many descriptive adjectives. Read the following definitions 
and sentences. Then choose the correct adjective for each sentence below.
ravenous
very hungry
We hadn’t eaten all day, and we were ravenous.
laborious
requiring a lot work; filled with labor
After a long, laborious day, we inished building the shelter.
rusty
covered with a reddish-brown color, as in oxidized metal
The knife that fell in the water got rusty.

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Nature in the United States
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17
soaring
to be very high or tall
The soaring bird was hit by an airplane.
prickly
having sharp points
The prickly plants made small cuts in his hands.
bloodshot