E n g L i s h jenni Currie Santamaria

The Omnivore’s Dilemma
by Michael Pollan. An 
omnivore is an animal that eats both plants and animals. Pollan writes about the 
food system in the United States. He describes large-scale farming and 
ranching and compares them to more traditional small-scale food production. 
He talks about the health effects, the economic effects, and the ethical aspects 
of modern food production. In one section of the book, Pollan describes his 
effort to eat a meal that only includes food that he has planted, gathered, or 
hunted himself. The passage below comes from the chapter where he hunts 
and kills an animal for the irst time in his life.

---

Eating In, Eating Out
|
117
B.
Words to know before you read
These words are all related to guns. Match them to their definitions.
____ 1.
cocked 
a. the tube-shaped part of the gun
____ 2.
safety 
b. the part you pull to ire the gun
____ 3.
barrel 
c. a device on a gun that you look
through
____ 4.
trigger 
d. ready for shooting
____ 5.
sight 
e. the part of the gun that prevents 
accidental iring
C.
Reading strategy
The italicized text in this reading indicates people talking (direct speech). Look 
quickly through the passage, and find all of the sentences with italicized words. 
Answer the question.
What is the name of the man who is teaching Pollan how to hunt? 
II. READ
Read the text. Mark the words you don’t know, but don’t stop reading to look 
them up.
I touched Angelo on the shoulder and pointed toward the pigs. 
What should I 
do?
This time my gun was cocked, of course, and now, for the irst time, I took 
off the safety. 
Should I shoot?
No, you wait
, Angelo said. 
See—they’re coming 
down the hill now
. I followed the pigs with the barrel of my gun, trying to get 
one of them in my sight. My inger rested lightly on the trigger, and it took all 
the self-restraint I could summon not to squeeze, but I didn’t have a clear 
shot—too many trees stood in the way. 
Take your time
, Angelo whispered. They 
will come to us. And so they did, following the streambed down to the road 
directly in front of us, moving toward us in an excruciatingly slow parade. I have 
no idea how long it took the pigs to pick their way down the steep hill, whether 
it was minutes or just seconds. At last the irst animal, a big black one, stepped 
out into the clearing of the dirt road, followed by another that was just as big 
but much lighter in color. The second pig presented its lank. 
Now!
Angelo 
whispered. 
This is your shot!
Source: 
The Omnivore’s Dilemma
, by Michael Pollan, New York: Penguin Books, 
2006, p. 351

---

118
|
Better Reading English
III. COMPREHENSION CHECK
Mark the sentences T (True) or F (False).
____ 1.
They are hunting pigs.
____ 2.
Pollan shoots a pig right away.
____ 3.
There were a lot of trees in the area.
____ 4.
The pigs were walking on lat ground.
____ 5.
Angelo told Pollan to shoot the black pig.
IV. VOCABULARY BUILDING
A.
Understanding from context
Read the words and definitions. Then write each word in one of the following 
sentences.
self-restraint 
self-control
summon 
call urgently
excruciating