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Vocab QUIZ 2 NEXT WEEK!!! FRIDAY Oct 31

Greek and Latin Root
ENT, ESS
Latin ESSE to be
ENTITY: (n.) a being
For tax purposes, a married couple may be considered either
two people or a single entity.
ESSENCE: (n.) The most important ingredient; the crucial element
After months of preparation, the lawyers finally began to
discuss the essence of the case.
Synonym: crux
QUINTESSENTIAL: (adj.) The most typical, ideal, or important
Latin: quintus fifth + esse = fifth state of being, fifth essence
The goalie declared that the Rangers victory in the last
second of the final game was his quintessential sports triumph.
synonym: essential
Predictions
1. Read the first two paragraphs of Berrys The Pleasures of Eating. jot down your predictions,
based on the title and these early paragraphs, of what Berry might discuss.
2. Read the first paragraph of Pollans When a Crop Becomes King. Jot down your predictions,
based on the title and this first paragraph, as to what Pollans point of view might be.
3. Will these writers make arugments? For what?
4. Read the first four paragraphs of Berrys essay. Adjust your predictions about what Berry might
try to do in his essay.
5. Turn the title of Berrys essay into some questions
that you might keep in mind as you read the
essay.
6. Read the first four paragraphs of Pollans essay
and adjust your predictions about what Pollan
might try to prove.
Cornwall Bridge, Conn. Here in southern New England the corn is already wais high and growing so avidly you
can almost hear the creak of stalk and leaf as the plants stretch toward the sun. The ears of sweet corn are just
starting to show up on local farm stands, inaugurating one of the ceremonies of an American summer. These days
the nations nearly 80 million-acre field of corn rolls across the countryside like a second great lawn, but this
wholesome, all-American image obscures a decidedly more dubious reality.
Like the tulip, the apple and the potato, zea mays (the botanical name for both
sweet and feed corn) has evolved with humans over the past 10,000 years or so in the
great dance of species we call domestication. The plan gratifies human needs, in
exchange for which humans expand the plants habitat, moving its genes all over the
world and remaking the land (clearing trees, plowing the ground, protecting it from its
enemies) so it might thrive.
Corn, by making itself tasty and nutritious, got itself noticed by Christopher
Columbus, who helped expand its range from the New World to Europe and beyond.
Today corn is the worlds most widely planted cereal crop. But nowhere have humans
done quite as much to advance their interests of this plant as in North America, where
zea mays has insinuated itself into our landscape, our food system and our federal
budget.
One need look no further than the $190 billion farm bill President Bush signed last
month to wonder whose interests are really being served here. Under the 10-year
program, taxpayers will pay farmers $4 billion a year to grow ever more corn, this
despite the fact that we struggle to get rid of the surplus the plant already produces.
The average bushel of corn (56 pounds) sells for about $2 today; it costs farmers more
than $3 to grow it. But rather than design a program that would encourage farmers to
plant less corn which would have the benefit of lifting the price farmers receive for it
Congress has decided instead to subsidize corn by the bushel, thereby insuring that zea
mays dominion over its 125,000-square mile American habitat will go unchallenged.
Predictions
1. Read the first two paragraphs of Berrys The Pleasures of Eating. jot down your
predictions, based on the title and these early paragraphs, of what Berry might
discuss.
2. Read the first paragraph of Pollans When a Crop Becomes King. Jot down your
predictions, based on the title and this first paragraph, as to what Pollans point of
view might be.
3. Will these writers make arugments? For what?
4. Read the first four paragraphs of Berrys essay. Adjust your predictions about what
Berry might try to do in his essay.
5. Turn the title of Berrys essay into some questions that you might keep in mind as
you read the essay.
6. Read the first four paragraphs of Pollans essay and adjust your predictions about
what Pollan might try to prove.
7. Turn the title of Pollans essay into some
questions that you might keep in mind
as you read the essay.
In small groups (no more than 3 to a group),
try to figure out the definitions to these
vocab words:
The Pleasures of Eating by
Wendell Berry
urban shoppers (paragraph 4)
obstacles (paragraph 4)
specialization (paragraph 5)
industrial food consumer
(paragraph 5)
cultural amnesia (paragraph
6)
a pig in a poke (paragraph 6)


food esthetics (paragraph 8)
perfunctory (paragraph 8)
obliviousness (paragraph 9)
relentlessly (paragraph 11)
In small groups (no more than 3 to a group),
try to figure out the definitions to these
vocab words:
When a Crop Becomes King by Michael Pollan
dubious (paragraph 1)
domestication (paragraph 2)
insinuated (paragraph 3)
subsidize (paragraph 4)
wreaks havoc (paragraph 6)
metabolized (paragraph 10)
predators (paragraph 13)